ISTC set to report massive profits

INTERNATIONAL Securities Trading Corporation (ISTC), the hybrid capital lender to financial institutions, is due to report substantial profits in its first full year of trading.

Later this week the group is expected to announce it made profits of €6.5 million for the year to 30 September, 2006, boosted by buoyant demand from an economy enjoying strong consumer and corporate spending.

It is also benefiting from the massive growth in private sector credit.

It topped €300 billion for the first time in October as Ireland maintained its reputation as the most borrowed nation in Europe after the Dutch.

At the interim stage the group generated pre tax profits of €1.7m, better than its own projections.

At the time chairman Sean French said that by the end of the first full year the group was likely to have generated profits of €5m. But that target is understood to have been comfortably breached, due to a successful period of lending in the second half when the demand for credit continued to climb, as the Central Bank figures confirmed.

Tiarnan O’Mahoney, former director and chief operating officer of at Anglo Irish Bank, set up ISTC, in July of last year, and raised €165m in equity capital from high net worth individuals in Ireland.

So far, the result for the group has been well ahead of expectations and represents a strong performance, the company said.

At the balance sheet date of March 15, total lending stood at €492m and that figure has grown substantially.

At the time of the interim figures Mr French said the board was “very positive with regard to ISTC’s prospects”.

“The company has already clearly demonstrated its ability to originate lending opportunities that match our risk, pricing and other criteria, and finance those assets appropriately,” he added.