International Personal Finance H1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
July 30, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Profit before tax rose 5.5% year-on-year to £49.9 m (up 18.8% at constant currency), and the board proposed a 3.8 p interim dividend (+11.8%).
  • Positive Sentiment: Group lending grew 11% at constant exchange rates, with European Home Credit +13% and IPF Digital delivering 16% receivables growth and 31% customer growth, led by Mexico and Australia.
  • Positive Sentiment: Net receivables expanded 12% year-on-year, with full-year guidance of 15-20% growth in European Home Credit, 10-15% in Mexico Home Credit, and ~20% in IPF Digital.
  • Positive Sentiment: Credit quality remained robust: annualized impairment rate improved to 8.3% with 32% coverage, supporting a pre-exceptional return on required equity of 15.4%; cost-income ratio was 61.9% (56.1% ex-Poland).
  • Positive Sentiment: Strong funding and capital position with £650 m of facilities (net borrowings £558 m), £92 m headroom, £103 m of new bank facilities arranged, early € bond repayment, and blended funding cost reduced to 12.5%.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
International Personal Finance H1 2025
00:00 / 00:00

There are 3 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning, everybody, and welcome to our results presentation for the six months to the 06/30/2025. Now if you've been watching the airwaves this morning, you'll note actually that we put out two announcements. One is our standard set of results for the six month period, but the other is what's called a Rule 2.4 announcement, and that's a statement regarding a possible recommended cash offer for IPF, our group, by Basepoint Capital LLC. Now there isn't anything I can tell you that isn't in that document, so I can't talk about that document today. Everything you need to know is actually in the 2.4 announcement.

Operator

So for today, I'd like then to focus on what has been a very good set of results. Now as usual, I'm going to start and do a high level overview of the numbers, and then I'm going to go on and talk about our three pillar strategy. I'll then hand you over to Gary, who's going to take us through the trading business in detail, both at a group level and for each of our three divisions. Gary will also cover the funding, the portfolio quality, and capital management, and point out to us where we're doing really well and where we have more work to do. At the end, I'll cover off a forward look, and then we'll go on to q and a.

Operator

Now as regards q and a, somewhere on the bottom of your screen, there should be a dialogue box. So at any point, please feel free to type in a question there, and we'll get that. Or alternatively, just wait until the end and put the questions to us, and Rachel will ask us all of those at the end of the presentation. Now in total, I think it probably takes about forty minutes. So with that, let's talk about the overview.

Operator

Now if you had a chance to see our RNS this morning, you'll have seen that we put out a number of 49,900,000 profit before tax for the six months, and that's up 5.5% year on year. But as Gary's gonna give you more color, he'll explain that on a constant currency basis, actually, the rate of increase was more than three times that. We saw really good demand for credit across all of our businesses. And as a result of great operational execution by our team, we've delivered 12% increase in the closing net receivables. As for returns, we're now delivering 15.4% return on required equity.

Operator

So with a good set of results, a really strong balance sheet as always, and with the outlook for the rest of the year and into '26 looking positive, the board are happy to recommend an interim dividend of 3.8p per share. So let's look now at our strategy. Now for those of you who follow us on a regular basis, there is no surprise on this page. We have a three pillar strategy. First of all, next gen financial inclusion, and that's all about building the products and services that our customers want and delivering them through the channels that they want to receive them.

Operator

Secondly, we have next gen organization, and that's about becoming a more efficient organization and playing a positive role in society. And finally, we have NextGen tech and data, about being a smarter and more efficient partner for all of our stakeholders. So if we look at each of these in turn, and I'll give you some color on what we've been up to over the last six months. First of all, next gen financial inclusion. Now as you know, we launched a credit card in Poland some time ago.

Operator

Well, I'm delighted to say it's proving very, very successful. So we currently have 160,000 active cards in the market. And in addition, a few weeks ago, we launched our first digital card there. So that means an applicant can go online, pass the score test, and then get a credit card without having to see a customer representative, although the vast majority still do see a customer representative. The really good news on the card is that we're seeing increasing activity levels across our cards, in particular in retail, which is really fantastic because it means that the customers are finding value in the day to day use of what a card provides.

Operator

Now the great thing here is that our view is that card can go on and grow even further, and it currently represents more than 40% of our portfolio. If we look at short term products, now we mentioned at the I think it was in our final results for last year that we just launched a short term lending product in both Poland and Creditaire, Mexico. That's our digital business there. Well, what we've seen as a result is really strong customer demand for that product. Now as most of you know, for businesses that provide short term lending only, a lot of those survive because they keep their customers in perpetual debt.

Operator

Well, that is absolutely not our strategy. So what we've done is we've designed the product so that if a customer finds it difficult to make the repayments under a short term loan, then we will automatically offer them without any hidden fees the opportunity to transfer to a slightly longer loan at a significantly lower rate, so increasing the affordability for them. And that is proving very popular. But I can also tell you that over 70% of all customers on this product are actually paying on the nose. They're paying on time, and that's really good.

Operator

And our view here is there's a really big opportunity in this space for us to attract customers in with this product, and if they wish later on, offer them a larger and longer term service if that's what they want. Now the other area that we've been working on is our retail partnerships. Now as you know, this is the idea that wherever our customers are out shopping or buying products, they may need money, and we would like to be there at the point at which they need that cash, so operating, therefore, through retailers. Well, I'm really delighted to say that in Romania, we now have over 1,100 retail outlets working with us both on and offline. In Mexico, it's over 70 and growing rapidly.

Operator

And the really good thing here is it's bringing us traffic we otherwise would not have seen. So I can tell you that in Romania, fully 98% of our customers through this channel are completely new to us. Now to make this channel successful, what we need to do are two things. First of all, we need to make it easier to onboard a retailer. So we're very focused on that.

Operator

And the second thing is we then need to optimize the scorecard for the particular traffic that's coming through each individual retailer. But our view here is this is a is a success, and it's got a big opportunity ahead for us. Looking now to Mexico. As you know, the strategy in Mexico is geographic expansion, and I'm happy to say that our recent most recent branch opening was in Nueva Leon in Monterrey, and we will open a new branch again in the second half of the year. I can also confirm that the more recent branch openings, which were Guadalupe, Mexicali, and Tampico, are all operating very satisfactorily, so very positive about that.

Operator

Then turning to Australia. Now I do remember that at the year end results, we talked about how happy we were with our digital business in Australia, and that trades under the brand name Creditea. Well, after a lot of research, we've decided that there's a lot more to play for in Australia. So we're going to invest a significant amount for us in the brand building in Australia, and I expect that we'll start that towards the '3 this year and that we should see the benefits of that coming through probably from the 2026 and beyond. But our view is there is a much bigger role that we can play in Australia.

Operator

And then finally, turning to Romania, where we recently launched our digital operation there. And so this is just part of our commitment that wherever it's appropriate, if we have a home credit business, we should also be offering our customers digital options. So as you can see, quite a lot going on under this particular pillar of the strategy. If we turn now to NextGen Org. Now we believe that as our business, we need to demonstrably show a positive face in the countries in which we operate.

Operator

And by that means, we we mean to have a positive impact in the societies that we play in. Now if we take Mexico as an example, in Mexico, over 90% of our Australians, so that's our customer representatives, and over 70% of our customers are women. So I was really delighted when I saw that our local team there has recently signed up to the UN Women Partnership. And so, really, that's all about promoting gender equality and something that I feel very positively about. So we're going to hold ourselves to account on that both internally but also externally.

Operator

Now I did mention, I think, about building a great place to work in our previous set of results. And we very recently launched our global people survey, where we surveyed over 20,000 colleagues. I'm delighted to say that we had a 91% participation rate and an 81% positive response rate across all the key categories of questions. So really, very, very positive. And essentially, what our colleagues told us is they feel proud and inspired to work for an organization that wants to build financial inclusion.

Operator

And probably you could see no better demonstration of that than the number of colleagues who take part on a regular basis in our volunteering exercises. So I have to say it feels really good to be part of an organization like that. And finally, let's turn to our third pillar, and that's next gen tech and data. Now this year, we are going to spend more on tech and data than in any year in our history. And really, we have four goals that we're trying to achieve here.

Operator

First of all, we want to make it easier to become a customer and stay a customer. Then we want to make the lives of our customer representatives easier and more productive. Then we want to build efficiency across the organization. And finally, what we've just talked about, we want to build out our product and our channel set. So that's where our investment is going.

Operator

So let me give you some insights into how that translates into actions on a day to day basis. So for instance, today, over 80% of all applications for credit coming to our organization now come through some form of digital channel, over 80. As another example, in Mexic sorry, in Poland, over 200,000 customers have been using our customer app, which is called ProviGo. And the great thing now is that we are going to roll out that same app across Hungary, Romania, and Czech Republic within the next nine months. What we're also trying to do is to tailor the experience for the customer expectations in any given geography.

Operator

So as examples, in Mexico, we've spent a lot of time and effort building WhatsApp into all of our customer communication channels and into the whole of the customer journey. And the reason being is that WhatsApp is ubiquitous in Mexico. Everybody uses it. Now on the other hand, in European home credit, we spent our effort building out web chat because that's the customer preference across Europe at the moment. So you can see we're trying to tailor our investment to suit the expectations of the customers.

Operator

The other thing I can say is that despite increasing expectations from all consumers about the service level they should get, I'm happy to say that our NPS scores are holding up very well. And personally, I believe a lot of that is down to the investment that we're making across all of these channels to improve the customer experience with our business. And also, the last thing on tech and data is just to say that behind the scenes, the piece that the customer never sees, we're spending a lot of time and effort to upgrade all of our intern tech internal technology to make it more robust and efficient. Now the piece of good news, and that is that all of this investment I've just talked about is already baked into our numbers. It's in our operating run rate.

Operator

So you shouldn't expect any surprises in terms of a number that pops up for this level of investment. It's actually embedded in our numbers. Now the three pillar strategy hasn't changed, but there is a lot, as you can see, going on behind every one of those pillars to execute and deliver on the strategy. And to talk us more through about what that means then in terms of results and the numbers themselves, I'm going to hand you over to Gary.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Gerard, and hello, everybody. As you heard in our introduction today, we have delivered an excellent set of results in the 2025, with profit before tax increasing by 5.5% to GBP 49,900,000.0. Now this result was ahead of our internal plans, mainly due to strong customer repayment performance across the group as credit quality remains very good. It's also worth adding that the year on year growth in profits was achieved despite a GBP 5,000,000 adverse impact from weaker foreign currencies in 2025, and that's mainly the Mexican peso. On a constant currency basis, pre exceptional profit before tax was up an impressive 18.8%.

Speaker 1

Our first half performance provides a very strong foundation for a further acceleration of growth in the second half of the year. Accordingly, we expect second half profit to be at a similar level to the 2024 as we absorb the impact of more IFRS nine Day one impairment charges. And to help you with your forecasts, the chart on the bottom left shows the split of profit in 2024 with a profit before tax of GBP 38,000,000 being generated in the second half of the year. So let's look at lending growth. We delivered really good group lending growth of 11% at constant exchange rates in the 2025, supported by continuing healthy demand in all of our markets.

Speaker 1

In European Home Credit, we delivered 13% lending growth. Romania delivered impressive growth of 19%, supported by the continued expansion of the partnership and hybrid digital channels, both of which are delivering really encouraging results. In Poland, the granting of a full payment institution license last November enabled the business to grow lending by 17%. And Hungary and The Czech Republic both continued to perform well, delivering solid growth of just over 5%, backing up the strong performances they achieved last year. Mexico Home Credit returned to growth, delivering nearly 2% growth in the first half following the IT upgrade, which began in Q4 last year but was not fully completed and embedded until midway through Q2 this year.

Speaker 1

Now that these changes are complete, we saw a significant pickup momentum in June, where lending volumes increased by nearly 5%, and this momentum has continued into July, where lending growth is running at 8%. Supported by strong consumer demand in the market and a very soft fourth quarter comparator, we expect growth to accelerate to up to 15% in the second half. And as a result, full year lending growth for the year as a whole is expected to between 79%. IPF Digital continues to deliver impressive growth in both customer numbers and lending as demand for our fully remote credit solutions continues to rise. Year on year, customer and lending growth were 1316%, respectively.

Speaker 1

Now Mexico and Australia were again the standout performers, delivering lending growth of 4328%, respectively. And Mexico passed a major milestone in the first half as it surged past the 100,000 customer mark. We are very excited about the growth prospects in both Mexico and Australia and are increasing our investment in both the brand and the product proposition to maintain the acceleration in growth and capture the very strong growth opportunity that we have in both these markets. Now on to receivables. The strong momentum in lending growth is flowing nicely through to receivables growth, and we delivered 12% year on year growth in the first half.

Speaker 1

In European Home Credit, we delivered receivables growth of 12% to GBP $5.00 2,000,000. And all four countries delivered very good growth with 14% in both Hungary and Romania, 10% in Poland and 9% in The Czech Republic. Poland's receivables book now stands at GBP 170,000,000 with growth of GBP 10,000,000 in the first half, and credit cards continue to gain traction, now representing approximately 40% of the overall receivables book. Given the strong momentum in customer lending, we expect European home credit receivables growth to be between 1520% for the year as a whole. In Mexico Home Credit, receivables showed a relatively modest increase of 3.8% to GBP 168,000,000.

Speaker 1

But with the acceleration in lending growth I mentioned earlier, we anticipate full year receivables growth of between 10% to 15%. In IPF Digital, we delivered receivables growth of 16%, which reflects consistent delivery of our digital strategy across all our markets. As you might expect, Mexico and Australia led the way with strong receivables growth of 3228%, respectively, whilst our other markets in The Baltics, Poland and The Czech Republic delivered combined growth of 9%. And looking ahead, we continue to expect IPF Digital's overall receivables growth for 2025 will be towards twenty percent as a whole. So if you look at the expected growth rates by division I've just discussed and doing the sums, you will see that we continue to expect full year receivables growth of around GBP $250,000,000 in 2025, which is wholly with the guidance we provided with the full year results back in February.

Speaker 1

Turning now to the progress we are making against the core KPIs of revenue yield, impairment rate and costincome ratio. Now before I delve into the metrics, I'd like to highlight that we have set out our KPIs both on a fully consolidated group basis as well as on a group basis, excluding Poland. Now this is due to the major impact which the ongoing transition in Poland has had on our KPIs and their comparison to our medium term targets. However, the key message I want you to take away is that the trends I'm going to talk you through are fully in line with the guidance and expectations and that we are on track to deliver and operate within our group target metrics by 2027. So starting with the revenue yield.

Speaker 1

In European Home Credit, the yield reduced by 1.6 percentage points to 45.6%, mainly due to the flow through of lower rate caps in Poland as well as a slight moderation in the yield in Hungary due to the reduction in the base rate linked interest rate cap and also in Romania due to the introduction of the new total cost of credit cap that came in, in Q4 of last year. In Mexico Home Credit, we saw a reduction in the yield from 86.5% to 84.4%. Now this is wholly due to the 30% reduction in new customers that we saw in the fourth quarter of last year as we focused on serving good quality existing customers during the IT upgrade. The mix of lending between existing customers and new customers is now back to normal levels. And in IPF Digital, the annualized revenue yield was broadly stable at 42.7%, with the impact of reductions in base rate linked interest rate caps in The Baltics and Australia being offset by the growth in the receivables in Mexico, which carries a higher yield.

Speaker 1

Overall, the group's annualized revenue yield has reduced from 55.4530.3% over the last twelve months. However, if we exclude Poland, the group's revenue yield was 57.1% and remains within the group's target range of 56% to 58%. We expect the ongoing shift to higher yielding products through both our credit cards in Poland and more new customers in Mexico to progressively increase the group's revenue yield as we go forward. I'm again pleased to say that despite some volatility in macroeconomic conditions, customer repayment behavior has remained very strong. And together with the tight credit standards in place, the quality of our loan book continues to be excellent.

Speaker 1

The very good repayment performance has resulted in a marginal reduction in the impairment coverage provision from 32.9% at December 2024 to thirty two percent at June 2025. And together with the continued benefit of a strong debt sale market and the 100,000,000 contraction in Poland receivables that we've seen through 2023 and 2024, all of these factors have combined to deliver a further 2.2 percentage point improvement in the annualized impairment rate to 8.3%. Now if we exclude Poland, the group's impairment rate was actually stable at 14.5% despite the rate of receivables growth in the first half being nearly double that achieved in the first half of last year. This rate was ahead of our internal plan and really highlights the strong credit quality of the receivables book. And looking ahead, we expect Poland's impairment rate to steadily increase back to somewhere between 810% over the next two years as we accelerate the growth in the business and increase the receivables book by over GBP 100,000,000.

Speaker 1

As a result, you'll see the group impairment rate move progressively towards our overall target range of between 14% to 16% over the next two years. Now we continue to maintain a strict focus on efficiency and cost control, which resulted in cost growth of only 2.5% in the first half compared with receivables growth of 11.7%. The group's cost income ratio at 61.9% is 2.9 percentage points higher than June, but that's mainly due to the reduction we saw in Poland's revenue. If we exclude the Polish Home Credit business, the group's cost income ratio was 56.1%. Now that was up a little from 55.2% at June 2024, but it was due to the reduction investment in growth initiatives.

Speaker 1

Now we expect the group's cost income ratio to improve into our target range of 49% to 51% in the medium term as we grow the lending portfolio and maintain tight discipline of the investments made in building scale and expanding our capabilities to accelerate the pace of change. Moving on to returns and the increase in shareholder value that we are delivering. Our annualized pre exceptional return on required equity was 15.4% at the end of the first half. This reflects the successful delivery of target returns of 20% in both European Home Credit and Mexico Home Credit as well as improving returns in IPF Digital as we build scale. We expect our returns to moderate in the 2025 and in 2026 due to the acceleration in receivables growth in Poland, which, as I described earlier, brings with it increased upfront impairment charges under IFRS nine.

Speaker 1

The group's annualized return on equity, which is based on actual equity, was 14.7% at June 2025, and that's up from 10.4% at this stage last year. Our pre exceptional EPS increased by 12.7% to 14.2p, which is a faster rate of growth than the 5.5% growth in PBT due to a lower tax rate and fewer shares in issue following the successful completion of the share buyback in the second half of last year. Consistent with our guidance with the full year results, the effective tax rate in 2025 is 38%, which is a lower rate than the 40% used in the first half of last year. And finally, EPS. Our reported EPS grew by 61% to 14.2p in the first half, a much higher rate than the 12.7% growth in pre exceptional EPS.

Speaker 1

And this is due to the impact of the pretax exceptional charges of GBP 10,800,000.0 in the first half of last year. So on to dividends. In line with the group's policy of paying 33% of the prior year's full dividend at the half year, the Board has proposed an interim dividend of 3.8p per share. This represents year on year growth of 11.8% and is underpinned by the group's capital strength and the Board's confidence in our outlook. So before I hand back over to Gerard, I'd like to talk you through our robust funding and capital position, which underpins our growth ambitions.

Speaker 1

At the June, we had total debt facilities of GBP $650,000,000, comprising GBP $396,000,000 in bonds and GBP $254,000,000 in bank funding. Net borrowings at the end of the first half totaled GBP $558,000,000, resulting in the group having funding headroom of £92,000,000 Now I'm pleased to report that during the first half, we successfully arranged £50,000,000 of new bank facilities. And as at the July, have now extended a further GBP 53,000,000 of bank facilities in 2025. So a really good result. And we continue to have very good relationships with the 17 lending banks across our markets.

Speaker 1

In respect of debt capital markets, our strong funding position enabled us to repay the residual $20.20 Eurobond early. Our credit ratings remain unchanged with both Fitch and Moody's, and both maintained a stable outlook for the group. And very encouragingly, our twenty twenty nine Eurobonds and twenty twenty seven Retail Bonds both continue to perform very well in the secondary market, yielding around 8%. And this reflects continued investor confidence in the group and position us well to access debt capital markets, which we expect to do shortly. And lastly, on funding, our blended cost of funding has reduced from 13.2% in the first half of last year to 12.5% this year.

Speaker 1

And that reflects both the benefit of lower interest rates but also reduced hedging costs. We expect the full year rate to remain around this level. And finally, on to capital. Our equity to receivables ratio stands at 53% at the June, down from 56% in June. The year on year reduction reflects the completion of the GBP 15,000,000 share buyback in the second half of last year and the acceleration in growth in receivables during the first half of this year.

Speaker 1

Now we'll continue to assess the appropriate time to commence the additional 15,000,000 share buyback announced with the year end results. So our strong capital position supports the group's ambitious growth plans and our progressive dividend policy through to the point at which we are delivering our target returns and operating closer to our 40% equity to receivables target. And we expect this consistent with previous guidance to be around 2027. So to sum up, we've delivered another cracking set of results in the 2025. Credit quality remains excellent.

Speaker 1

We're continuing to see much improved lending growth lending momentum on lending growth, and we have a very robust funding and capital position to support our plans. And on that note, I will now hand you back to Gerard to take you through the outlook.

Operator

Thank you very much, Gary. So as you heard from Gary there, a really great story. So let's wrap it up and go on to the Q and A. But in summary, we've had a really, really positive six months of trading. You know, top line trading has been very good.

Operator

Yes. I would have liked to touch more growth maybe in Poland and Mexico, but actually, at the end of q two, we saw great momentum in both of those businesses, and that momentum has been carried very solidly into July. So I feel good about that. Portfolio quality, as Gary said, is really remarkable. Very, very, very good.

Operator

And in terms of our three pillar strategy, I talked you through all the things that we're doing to execute against that. So a really good first half performance. The second half, as Gary said, well, you now have a clear indication of what we're expecting there in terms of profitability. We are going to continue to invest to grow this business. It's a great business.

Operator

It's got lots of opportunity, and building financial inclusion is a journey that's never going to come to an end. So all in all, we feel very good about the first six months, about what we've achieved, but we also feel good about executing our strategy into the remainder of this year and beyond. So with that, let's move on now to the q and a. So I'm going to ask Gary and Rachel to come up, and we'll go through any questions that you've posed to us over the last half hour or so. Thanks.

Operator

Hey, guys. So well, I'm going to guess and say zero questions on what is a very good set of results and lots of questions on the other announcement.

Speaker 2

Not quite right. We've got a couple so far on the results and some of our news on how we're progressing our strategy. So I'll start with one of those. You mentioned new short term online products are performing well. Are there any plans to expand into other markets like The U.

Speaker 2

K. Or U. S. A, where demand for short term loans is strong?

Operator

No, not new markets, but certainly based on our experience so far, and it's a short experience in Poland and Mexico. Based on that experience, I would say most definitely, we'll be taking short term loan product to our other existing markets. But I think we'd be slow to go into a new market with that as the initial product. So at the moment, I think the big opportunity is Poland and Mexico and then move into our other existing markets.

Speaker 2

Okay. And we've got one here. Will the current growth plans be sufficient to reduce the equity to receivables ratio down to the target?

Speaker 1

I mean, yes, that's the if you obviously, we've talked through the statement in terms of hitting our targets, our financial model targets in 2027. Capital position you see at the end of the half year, basically, capital position allows us to deliver our growth plans, allows us to we expect our returns to moderate over the next eighteen months. So clearly, we'll use some capital for that. We'll use some capital for the receivables growth. We'd expect it to move towards our 40% -ish target by 2027 when we're fully operating in the financial model, generating the growth, generating the returns to pay the minimum dividend, a 40% payout and also maintain the balance sheet at that close to that 40% equity to receivables ratio.

Speaker 2

Okay. And then one that runs on from that. As the business mix changes, will that result in any changes to the tax rate?

Speaker 1

The tax rate is generally determined by where profits are generated. I mean, clearly, tax rates and tax rules in countries do change. It's probably more a mix thing and the level of impairment that we take in different countries. I mean we've said we expect the tax rate to be 38% for this year. Clearly, our job is to try and work on that and potentially reduce it.

Speaker 1

But it does need certain tax rules in countries to change to get significantly below that.

Speaker 2

Okay. Moving on to Poland. When do you expect the transition period to end?

Speaker 1

2027, pretty much. The business has lost around GBP 100,000,000 receivables over the last two years, pretty much where we guided the market back in 2022, if people can remember. We need to get the business back up and beyond that in reality, and that's what the team in Poland are doing. So we'd expect it to be somewhere near where the scale we expect in 2027. And that's why we talked about each of the financial metrics being heavily distorted by Poland.

Speaker 1

When Poland's back to, let's say, scale in 2027, you'll see all our group metrics, including Poland, being towards and in those guardrails of our targets by around 2027.

Operator

And most of our mentions of Poland of late have been about it shrinking and getting smaller. And yes, we guided to it. But I suppose we should remind people that we feel very positively about Poland. You know, the credit card is doing really well. It's really resonating with customers.

Operator

They like the card, and they're using it. The personal loan product is hugely popular. And then short term lending is now on stream, and so that feels good as well. So we feel really positive about it. We carried very, very

Speaker 1

good

Operator

momentum from June into July, so that bodes well for the rest of the year. So, yeah, we're coming off probably our lowest base, but feeling really good about the trajectory.

Speaker 2

Great. So I'm going to move now on to the other news that we announced this morning, and I've tried to summarize some of the questions that we've had. We've had some questions about have there been any discussions about management incentives as part of the proposal?

Operator

No. Excuse me. No. None. It's not permitted.

Operator

Or if you were to have those types of discussions and you got to an offer, those discussions have to be fully disclosed in what's called a 2.7 document. But there have been zero discussions on anything like that.

Speaker 2

Okay. And we've had a number around of questions relating to how the proposal might impact bondholders. Have you got any color that you can add at all on that?

Speaker 1

I mean, firstly, it's obviously a possible offer. You know what I would do is just refer people to the EMTN documentation. So if they're you know looking at what happens in a change of control or anything like that, yeah I'll refer them to the EMT which you can find on our website.

Speaker 2

Okay. I think just looking through all the questions, I think we've covered everything there this morning. Thank you.

Operator

Okay. Thank you very much, Rich. Thank you, Gary. So the last thing to say is a huge thank you to all of our colleagues. It's been a tremendous period for us the last six months, a really good set of results.

Operator

And you wouldn't believe just how much hard work goes into executing in your strategy across 10 different countries and delivering those results. So my sincere thanks to all of our colleagues for that. Clearly, we did put out a different announcement this morning, the 2.4, about the potential for an offer at some stage in the future. To the extent we can, in due course, we will come back and update the market on that. But obviously, we're governed by very strict stock exchange rules on that.

Operator

But for now, we're going to sign off and say thank you very much for your continued support. Thank you to all of our colleagues, We look forward to catching up with you all again shortly. Thank you very much.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

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