Finance Ireland, the State’s largest nonbank lender, reported on Thursday that its pretax profit jumped 95 per cent last year to €20.3 million as lending grew and funding costs for the sector declined.
The company, led by chief executive Billy Kane, said that its total new lending rose 19 per cent from 2023 to €646 million.
Customer loan balances increased by 14 per cent to €1.2 billion, comprising car, commercial real estate, agri and small business loans.
“This was another great year for Finance Ireland. During 2024 we continued to invest in building out our lending platforms and in supporting our goal to challenge and win against the dominant Irish retail banks,” said Mr Kane.
“We have been very successful in winning new business, entering new markets and selectively making high-quality acquisitions that support our long-term growth ambitions. We remain active in the market and continue to explore add on opportunities where they make sense for us.”
Mr Kane said that the company has had a “strong start” to 2025.
The Irish Times reported last month that PTSB made an unsolicited overture to buy Finance Ireland late last year and remained interested in doing a deal. However, there is said to be a wide gap between both sides on price expectation.
Industry sources have suggested that PTSB would have to pay in excess of €300 million to get Finance Ireland’s owners to agree to see. The business is 51 per cent-owned by US investment management giant Pimco, which is said to not be in a rush to sell. London-based investment company M&G owns almost 40 per cent, with the remainder held by management.
Sretaw, an investment owned by businessman Eamon Waters that has a 7 per cent in PTSB, told The Irish Times last month Finance Ireland would find it hard to command a valuation far above €100 million if it were a listed company – unless recent results and the future business plan “show a step change in prospects”.
Unlike banks, which mainly fund their loan books through cheap deposits, nonbanks are reliant on wholesale and capital markets, where rates spiked in recent years as central banks hike official borrowing costs to rein in inflation. The European Central Bank (ECB) has cut its key deposit rate from 4 per cent to 2.25 per cent since last June.
Aside from car, commercial real estate, agri and small business loans, Finance Ireland also holds the title over hundreds of millions of euros of residential mortgages that had been issued through the company over the past eight years but are held off balance sheet though bond market vehicles. Finance Ireland revealed in March it has decided to stop mortgage lending, having effectively been out of this market in recent years.
