Paragon re-enters buy-to-let market, posts profit rise

22nd Nov 2011 09:53

Paragon, the specialist lending company has seen pre-tax profits rise to £80.8m in the twelve months to the end of September, a gain of 12.5% on the prior year figure of £71.8m.Final dividend was lifted to 2.65p from 2.40p, giving a full year dividend of 4p per share (2010 3.6p).Paragon is split into two divisions, First Mortgages, which includes buy-to-let and owner-occupied mortgages and Consumer Finance which includes secured lending, retail finance and unsecured loan books.First Mortgages contributed £67.3m in profits, Consumer Finance chipped in £13.8m - down from the £15.5m figure of 2010.One of the most interesting parts of today's statement is that Paragon has re-entered the origination market for buy-to-let mortgages, lending £127m in the last 12 months. Commenting on the results, Nigel Terrington, chief executive of Paragon, said:"...we have successfully re-established our buy-to-let new lending business and completed a securitisation of buy-to-let assets originated during the year, our first since 2007. This augurs well for a strong start to 2012."Shares in Paragon had risen 2.51% to 171.2p by 10.11AM.BS