Strong lending growth boosts Heartland Group's profit

Heartland Group Holdings chief executive Jeff Greenslade. Photo / Supplied

Strong lending growth and lower costs helped boost the half year profit of Heartland Group Holdings to $47.5 million.

The finance firm which owns Heartland Bank and a reverse mortgage business that spans New Zealand and Australia posted a 7.8 per cent rise in the six months to December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020.

In a statement to the NZX, chief executive Jeff Greenslade said the first half result included a pleasing annualised rate of growth in lending of 13.9 per cent.

"It also demonstrated the benefits of ongoing digitalisation, with a reduction in the cost-to-income (CTI) ratio."

Its cost to income ratio was 43.8 per cent down 5 percentage points.

But its impairment expenses were also up rising from 0.19 per cent of average receivables in the six month to December 2020 to 0.33 per cent in the six months to December 2021.

Greenslade said this was due to Covid-19 related extensions that occurred in 2021 but was still below the six months to June 30 2021 period when it hit 0.43 per cent and the FY2020 when it was 0.65 per cent.

The company also noted the introduction of tightening in the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act on December 1 had led to slowed growth in its motor and online home loans in January and February this year.

"This has the potential to impact on the growth rate for the remainder of the six-month period ending 30 June 2022 (2H2022).

"This is being partially offset by growth in other areas, especially reverse mortgages in Australia and New Zealand, and no material reduction in anticipated full year growth is expected."

Its net interest margin rose 3 basis points to 4.3 per cent. The company will pay an interim dividend of 5.5 cents per share, an increase of 1.5cps on its 2021 first half.

Home loans

Its home loan online platform, which launched in October 2020, had now done $218.5m in loans across 422 customers as of the end of January.

"This online offering has enabled Heartland to consistently provide customers with market-leading or highly competitive rates."

It was aiming to reach $1 billion in lending by the end of the 2023 financial year and planned to launch a mobile app for its reverse mortgage customers in Australia.

The group said growth in Australia continued to be a strategic priority and it was exploring potential acquisitions as part of this.

It market share of the Australian reverse mortgage market had grown from 28 per cent to 31 per cent over the last 12 months.

A new streamlined loan product launched in January was targeting homeowners aged 60 to 70 years.

Covid-19 impact

Heartland said its ongoing digitisation of customer and product platforms was ensuring its customers could continue to engage with it remotely.

While there were additional pressures from the rising interest rate environment, higher cost of labour and inflation the group's higher level of growth had continued throughout 2021.

"As in previous periods, the impact of the pandemic has not disrupted business as usual activity, noting that the demographics most affected by Covid-19 are under-represented in Heartland's customer base."

The group had taken an economic overlay of $9.6m in FY20 which remained unutilised. It would continue to hold the overlay as it was not yet appropriate to release it.

"Heartland's Covid-19 economic overlay remains in place and available to be applied to any losses stemming from the pandemic."