A STRONG second half of the year was not enough to stop merchant banking group
In the year to July, operating pretax profit dropped 52 per cent to £112m, down from £232.8m the year before. This mainly related to the £114.6m set aside for bad loans from Novitas, which
Excluding the Novitas provisions, operating profit still fell yearon-year as its market making business Winterflood continued to struggle. Adjusted profit was down 75 per cent in the division.
An uncertain macroeconomic environment also forced
Impairment losses rose to £204.1m, including the provisions related to Novitas.
However, the bank stressed that it has "not seen a significant impact from the external environment on credit performance". Its shares were trading 3.6 per cent lower yesterday.
Despite the impact of the Novitas loans, boss
The loan book grew five per cent to £9.5bn with the bank saying it remains committed to "lending consistently to customers in all market conditions".
(c) 2023 City A.M., source