Published : 8 years ago, on 16/05/2017

Results for the year ended 31 December 2016 

Highlights

• Pre-tax profit increased to £4.4m (2015: loss £3.1m)
• Lending assets increased by 161% to £463.5m (2015: £177.6m)
• Customer deposits increased by 180% to £523.3m (2015: £187.2m)
• Customer numbers more than doubled to over 16,000 (2015: 7,500)

Hampshire Trust Bank, the specialist challenger bank, has reported a pre-tax profit on continuing activities of £4.4m for the year ending 31 December 2016, its first annual profit since relaunching in May 2014.

Lending assets increased by 161% to £463.5m (2015: £177.6m) and customer deposits increased by 180% to £523.3m (2015: £187.2m). In addition, the bank announced that customer numbers increased to over 16,000, more than double the number at the end of 2015.

Mark Sismey-Durrant, Chief Executive Officer at Hampshire Trust Bank, said: “2016 was a landmark year for the bank. We achieved a full year of profits in only our second full year of trading since relaunch under new ownership. We earned strong interest margins on continuing operations and our continued focus on asset quality has resulted in each of our specialist lending lines achieving significant and profitable growth. Retail and business deposits have provided a reliable and low cost means of funding the business. During 2016 our savings customers increased by 134% to over 11,000, which shows our approach of providing consistently competitive savings accounts, backed by personal service, is working.”

Each of Hampshire Trust Bank’s specialist SME lending businesses delivered significant growth:

• Asset Finance loan book increased to £112.1m (2015: £56.1m)

• Block Discounting, part of Asset Finance, loan book increased to £41.7m (2015: £12.9m)
• Property Finance loan book increased to £207.5m (2015: £99.2m)
• Commercial Mortgages, which commenced operations in April 2016, grew its loan book to £101.3m

Key financial and performance information: 

• Total assets increased by 150% to £606.7m (2015: £242.7m)
• Originations increased by 135% to £396.6m (2015: £168.5m)
• Return on equity (post tax) of 5.4% (2015: -6.5%)
• Net interest margin of 5.47% (2015: 4.73%)
• Cost income ratio of 74% (2015: 148%)
• Common equity Tier 1 ratio of 17%

Mr Sismey-Durrant continued: “We are confident that 2017 will be another significant year of strong delivery for the bank. Our focus will be on driving greater scale, improving operational efficiency and in further enhancing the experience of our customers.

“We remain committed to creating a specialist bank to be proud of, delivered by experts with high aspirations for delivering great customer service and strong shareholder returns. We are well on our way to delivering this vision.”