The Prospa Group Ltd (ASX: PGL) share price will be one to watch this morning after the online lender released its half year results.
How did Prospa perform in the first half?
For the six months ended December 31, total loan originations came in at $306.8 million, bringing originations for the calendar year to $583.0 million. This was a 34% increase on the prior year and exceeded the guidance of $574.5 million it gave in November.
This led to the company reporting group revenue of $75.6 million for the first half, lifting calendar year revenue to $144.4 million. This was a 17% increase on the prior calendar year and was in line with its guidance of $143.8 million.
Management advised that this was driven by strong loan originations in both Australia and New Zealand.
On the bottom line the company reported a statutory net profit after tax of $0.6 million, up from a loss of $3 million in the prior corresponding period.
Management shuffle.
Prospa has announced a couple of changes in the C-suite with today's result, which it believes will deliver on its future growth aspirations.
According to the release, co-founder and joint CEO Beau Bertoli will now take on the newly created role of Chief Revenue Officer. This leaves fellow co-founder, Greg Moshal, as the sole CEO of the company.
Both co-founders remain significant shareholders in Prospa and will maintain their executive board positions. In addition to this, they both remain in an extended voluntary escrow period until after the company's first half results of FY 2021.
Mr Bertoli said: "I'm super excited to take on the newly created role of Chief Revenue Officer and focusing on growth. The new organisational structure will allow both Greg and me to concentrate on what we do best, and in my case that is focusing on growing originations, customers and our distribution capability."
Outlook.
The online lender has reiterated its FY 2020 guidance and expects to deliver originations of between $626 million and $640 million and revenue of more than $150 million for the full financial year.
Mr Moshal said: "Prospa has the benefit of being a first mover in this space, and we are not complacent. We have a huge amount of data about small businesses in Australia and we are very clear what a good small business looks like. We continue to look at ways we can add value by serving small businesses and helping them meet their goals through new products and services."
