Strong growth for Paragon’s commercial lending division
Paragon’s commercial lending division led new business growth for the banking group over the past year, Group annual results revealed today.
The commercial lending division, which includes development finance, SME lending, structured lending and motor finance, reported a 36% increase in new lending volumes to £968m and a 28% expansion in the loan book to £1.45bn.
Overall, underlying profits for the Group increased by 5% to £164m for the twelve months to 30 September 2019, up from £157m in 2018.
The combination of the Group’s original property development finance team with Titlestone, acquired in July 2018, raised new lending to developers from £137m last year to £363m.
SME lending, including asset finance and loans advanced by the Iceberg professions finance operation acquired in December 2017, grew to £407m, 15% up on the £355m for 2018.
Paragon’s structured lending team, which provides senior debt to developing finance businesses, also had a good year, with eight transaction in place compared to three at the end of 2018, having delivered £50m of net new lending.
The strong performance of commercial lending over the past year has been recognised with a string of recent awards, with Paragon picking up Deal of the Year at the 2019 Leasing World Awards, together with Best Commercial Lender and Best Specialist Commercial Lender at the 2019 Lending Awards.
Following a strategic focus on margin improvement, new motor finance lending reduced from £178m to £149m, but the Group continues to target its motor finance offerings on those specialist propositions, including light commercial vehicles and motorhomes.
Dave Newcombe, managing director of commercial lending at Paragon, said:
“Strong growth in Paragon’s lending, particularly to UK SMEs, is truly reflective of our commitment to support British businesses – helping them to grow and achieve their ambitions.”