Paragon sees the benefit of loan purchases
MORTGAGE and credit group Paragon has reported strong financial performance with a marked increase in profits compared to last year.
In an interim management statement covering the performance of the business from April 1 to date, the Solihull company revealed that operating profits for the nine month to June 30 were £68.9m compared to £58.9m for the corresponding period in the previous year.
Paragon said the increase is attributable primarily to income generated from the group’s acquired portfolios of consumer loans. It has been acquiring batches of unsecured loans from The Royal Bank of Scotland, for example.
Paragon said redemptions across its loan books remain low and the credit performance across the portfolio, including legacy buy-to-let and consumer assets, newly originated buy-to-let assets and the acquired books, remains in line with expectations.
During the quarter, £45.1m of new buy-to-let loans were advanced and a further £2.1m was advanced by way of further advances to existing borrowers. In the year to date advances total £136.4m and the pipeline of new business at June 30 2012 was £121.3m.
