International Personal Finance’s shares tank on profit dip and fear of FTSE 250 demotion
Shares in International Personal Finance tanked over 10 per cent today after it announced a drop in profits.
The company, which is widely expected to be relegated from the FTSE 250, reported profit before tax of £92.6mn in 2016, compared to £116.1m the year before.
Revenue rose 1.2 per cent to £755.9m, but the number of customers fell 1.6 percent to 2.5m, the company said.
The poor performance was blamed lower income from the home credit business, its biggest unit, and higher investment in its digital platform.
Read more: It's official: Easyjet and Dixons Carphone could be leaving the FTSE 100
Profits took a beating due to tougher legislation in Poland and an increase in impairments resulting from a restructuring of its Mexico business.
IPF's chief executive officer, Gerard Ryan, admitted that the company and its shareholders have had a "difficult year".
"We delivered continued strong growth in Southern Europe and IPF Digital but faced further regulatory challenges in Europe, particularly in Poland. Performance in our Mexican home credit business was below our original expectations but actions taken delivered a significantly improved performance in the second half of the year.
"We expect the competitive and regulatory environment to remain challenging but we continue to see further opportunities to optimise our European home credit operations and will utilise the returns generated by these businesses to invest in growing Mexico home credit and IPF Digital,” he said.
Take a look at this table that shows FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 promotions and demotions:
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FTSE 100 | FTSE 250 |
Promoted  |
Scottish Mortgage Inv Tst Rentokil Initial Smiths (DS) |
Syncona Sanne Group TBC Bank Group |
Demoted  |
Capita Easyjet Dixons Carphone |
Marshalls International Personal Finance CMC Markets |