- Gross lending up 24 per cent to record £188mn
- First-half pre-tax profit and EPS up a third to £2.7mn and 2.33p
Business continues to boom for Bath-based Time Finance (TIME:37.5p), an alternative provider of finance to more than 10,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
In the latest six-month trading period, own lending book origination increased 29 per cent to £47.3mn, which in turn boosted gross lending to a record high. Importantly, credit quality remains robust, a reflection of the fact that invoice and hard asset finance account for 70 per cent of total lending, up from 50 per cent in 2021. A doubling of the average deal size since then and dealing with a lower number of enquiries from more established and credit-worthy businesses is another reason why delinquency levels are holding steady at 6 per cent. All lending is made from the company’s own balance sheet or through brokering on business that does not meet its strict lending parameters.
On course for double-digit earnings growth
Time Finance uses wholesale funding facilities to finance its lending and remains funded to continue cherry-picking business to hit its £230mn lending target by June 2025. That’s worth noting since an increasing proportion of incremental gross profit earned on new lending converts into operating profit given the company has a relatively fixed cost base.
This helps explain why house broker Cavendish expects 30 per cent growth in operating profit to £5.6mn on 12 per cent higher revenue of £30.8mn in the 12 months to 31 May 2024. On this basis, expect both pre-tax profit and earnings per share (EPS) to rise by more than a quarter to £5.4mn and 4.3p, respectively.
Factoring in further growth in loan receivables to £210mn by 31 May 2025, analysts expect annual revenue of £33.1mn to deliver operating profit of £6.6mn, pre-tax profit of £6.3mn and EPS of 5.1p in the 2024-25 financial year. This implies the shares are rated on modest forward price/earnings (PE) ratios of 8.5 (2024) and 7.3 (2025).
Moreover, by recycling profits back into the business, tangible net asset value (TNAV) is also delivering double-digit growth, rising 13 per cent to £36.4mn (39.3p) year on year and on course to hit £38.8mn (42p) in May 2024 and £44mn (47.5p) in May 2025. The value being created for shareholders has not been lost on investors, hence why the share price has risen 41 per cent since I spotted the opportunity (‘Alpha Research: Business is booming for this underrated lender to SME’s’, 18 August 2023) and is up 19 per cent since my last buy call (‘Six micro-caps worth buying’, 9 November 2023).
The modest single-digit earnings multiple and 21 per cent discount to May 2025 TNAV estimates suggest the re-rating has further to run and I upgrade my target from 40p to 50p. Buy.
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