1pm, the Bath-based specialist lender to small firms, today revealed a 116% increase in annual pre-tax profits as it continues to exploit the gap in the market caused by the high-street banks reining in their lending.
Revenues at 1pm were up 21% to £2.31m in the year to May 31 with Pre-tax profits coming in at £436,000. Bad debts and provisions fell slightly to £180,000 despite its lease portfolio increasing by 8.9% to £11m and customers numbers by 25% to 1,881.
Non-executive chairman Mike Johnson said: "Against a challenging UK economic backdrop, I am pleased to report that 1pm has produced record results for the year, achieving its highest ever levels of revenues and profits.
“This is a demonstration of the growing success of its business model and the appetite amongst SMEs for equipment leasing from specialist providers. The board believes that the group is in a strong position for further profitable growth in the current year and beyond.”
Chief executive, Maria Hampton added: “This is the fourth consecutive set of published interim and full-year results to show profit. The group’s financial stability and significantly strengthened balance sheet should also help to facilitate the agreement of additional funding lines and controlled but significant expansion of the business.
“The board also believes that 1pm is in an excellent position to take full advantage of the commercial lending constraints currently placed on the UK banking industry.”
