ICS Mortgage’s parent company, Dilosk, has bought back some shares of a major UK investor and paid a maiden dividend last year, as its net profit rose by 80 per cent to €5.53 million.
Dilosk has repurchased 108,694 shares from London-based investment firm Chenavari and plans to cancel the stock, according to a filing with the Companies Registration Office (CRO).
This will reduce the Chenavari’s holding to 9.99 per cent from 14.4 per cent. It follows on from a similar repurchase buyback transaction carried out four years ago.
The cancellation of the shares will also marginally increase the stakes of remaining shareholders, led by chief executive Fergal McGrath, whose holding increases to 29.6 per cent. Mr McGrath and his brother and fellow director, Oran McGrath, will have a combined 57 per cent stake in the business.
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The documents do not give details of the price at which the shares have been repurchased.
Dilosk paid out €1 million of dividends a the end of last year to shareholders, the first since the company was set to buy the ICS brand name and an initial portfolio of home loans from Bank of Ireland. It has continued to pay quarter dividends since then, the company said in a separate statement.
The profit increase was driven by a rebound in net interest income, which rose 48 per cent to €6.65 million, Dilosk disclosed in its latest annual financial statement, filed on Tuesday with the CRO.
The net interest income increase was main the result of by the company’s purchase of about €400 million in prime residential mortgages from Ulster Bank last year as the UK-owned lender continued to wind down its operations in the Republic. It followed a 75 per cent slump in net interest income in 2023 as its funding costs spiralled on international markets and the company reined in new lending.
Chenavari initially acquired a stake in Dilosk in 2017 through a vehicle called Areo. It owned as much as 30 per cent of the company at one stage.
Dilosk continues to have another major institutional investor, UK-based Attestor Capital, which owns almost 20 per cent through an entity called Trinity Investments.
Total Dilosk loans under management, including mortgages counted on its balance sheet and loans that have been refinanced on bond markets through a process known as residential mortgage-backed securities transactions, increased by 12 per cent to €1.74 billion.
“The payment of our dividend to our shareholders in 2024, is a testament to the strength of our business, balance sheet and our commitment to shareholder returns,” the CEO said in a statement. “The performance of the existing loan book remains strong with a very low level of arrears.”
He said that new lending has picked up in 2025 following an easing of official interest rates by the European Central Bank (ECB), which have helped reduce market funding costs. While banks mainly fund their loans from cheap deposits, non-bank lenders rely on the wholesale and bond markets for funding.
Dilosk, which is one-third owned by UK investment firms Attestor Capital and Chenavari, pulled back lending dramatically in the second half of 2022 by tightening up its lending criteria and raising interest rates more than mainstream banks after its own funding costs soared in the international wholesale banking and bond markets.
Banks, on the other hand, saw their net interest incomes soar in 2023 as they mainly fund their mortgage books from cheap deposits – and earned extra money on excess deposits they had lodged with the Central Bank of Ireland.
