Specialist lender Together’s net loan book grew 13% year-on-year to £7.7bn in the three months ending 31 December.
According to Together’s latest results, the firm had average monthly lending of £283.2m, a rise of 21.6% on the same period the year before.
The average monthly lending growth is also 5.1% up on the prior quarter.
Together said that though there was “some increase in arrears”, this was “limited to certain segments of the loan book and is slowing compared to prior periods, while, more broadly, arrears are flattening across the majority of our products”. No specific arrears figures were given in this quarterly statement.
Together reported a profit before tax of £55.7m, which is 14.8% up on the same period last year and a 3.7% rise on the prior quarter. This was attributed to an increase in net interest income.
Together added that funding momentum had been “maintained” going into 2025, pointing to the splitting of its CABS facility into a duo of warehouse facilities worth £1.59bn and the issuing of its £276.8m second charge residential mortgage-backed securitisation (RMBS).
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Richard Rowntree, group CEO of Together, said: “I am pleased to report another strong performance during the quarter, reflecting the unique strengths of Together. Since joining in November, I have been impressed by the commitment and dedication of the team and everything I have seen has confirmed what attracted me to this market-leading business.
“During the quarter, we grew the loan book to a new high of £7.7bn, while delivering an attractive net interest margin of 5.4% and increasing net interest income by 12.6%, underlying profit before tax by 14.8% and cash receipts by 29.8% compared with the quarter to December 2023.
“We also further strengthened and diversified our funding, upsizing our LABS bridging facility to £1bn in November. We maintained this momentum into January, when we successfully separated our CABS 2 facility into two revolving warehouses to support our first and second charge RMBS programmes and, earlier this month, we successfully issued our first RMBS of 2025.”
He continued: “Looking forward, the UK economy is expected to perform better in 2025, driven by higher consumer and government spending and a continued reduction in interest rates, although the pace at which rates fall may be limited by persistent inflation.
“With long-term structural trends including changing employment patterns, a rise in multiple incomes and a continued lack of funding for SMEs supporting an increase in customers looking to specialist lenders for solutions, we will continue to be there to help people realise their ambitions as we have for the last 50 years.”
