Results wrap

A number of finance companies have reported results in the past week. Here is a wrap of how Lombard, Speirs and St Laurence have fared.

Friday, 1 June 2007

Its property finance arm, Lombard Finance & Investments, posted a net profit after tax of $5.84 million, up from $3.24 million. Loans and advances remained stable at $161.2 million ($163.8 million 2006) and it has $19.7 million in cash.

Lombard Sir Douglas Graham said the result was particularly pleasing given the highly competitive finance sector and “the challenging trading conditions”.

Bad debts hurt Speirs
Speirs Group reported an after tax loss of $847,000 for the year ended 31 March due to larger than expected bad and doubtful debt.

Bad debt and doubtful debt provisioning in 2007 amounted to $3,318,000, compared to $1,726,000 the previous year.

Most of the bad and doubtful debt in 2007 arose from loans made during the financial years 2001-2005 under lending practices that have since been changed.

Over the last 18 months, new Finance Division management and processes have been introduced. Lending standards have been tightened significantly, asset valuation and recovered asset disposal processes have been upgraded, and an exhaustive review of the receivables portfolio was undertaken during 2007.

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