S&U Plc (SUS.L), a British provider of motor, property bridging, and specialist finance services, on Tuesday reported a decline in preliminary earnings. However, the Group recorded an increase in revenue. The company also decided to pay a final dividend, but lower than last year's.
The company said: "After a first half which saw profit before tax ahead of both 2022/23 and budget, a combination of prolonged and raised interest rates, a British economy sliding towards recession and, most of all, a flurry of regulatory activity has seen profits for the year as a whole at £33.6m against £41.4m (the highest normalized profit in S&U's history) last year."
For the 12 month-period, the lender posted a pre-tax income of 33.584 million pounds, lesser than 41.410 million pounds in the previous year.
Net profit stood at 25.437 million pounds or 209.2 pence per share as against last year's 33.718 million pounds or 277.5 pence per share.
Operating profit slipped to 48.646 million pounds from 48.905 million pounds a year ago.
Administrative expenses were 19.767 million pounds, up from 16.256 million pounds in 2022.
Impairment charge stood at 24.203 million pounds as against last year's 13.877 million pounds.
The Board will pay a final dividend of 50 pence per share, lesser than last year's 60 pence per share, to be paid on July 12 to the shareholders on the register as of June 21.
With this, total dividend for the year stands at 120 pence per share, compared with 133 pence per share in 2022.
Revenue was 115.437 million pounds, up from 102.714 million pounds a year ago. The customer numbers in both Advantage, the Grimsby-based motor finance provider, and at Aspen, the property financier in Solihull, were at a record with total Group repayment of nearly 370 million pounds, up 18.5 percent from 2023.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com