Truck, plant and motor vehicle financier, Heartland Bank, has posted a net after tax profit of $10.9 million for the half year ending December 31.
Heartland, which incorporates Marac Finance, achieved the result in spite of a drop in the value of its mortgage book in the non-core property area.
The bank’s three core business divisions – including its retail and consumer division, which incorporates Marac’s motor vehicle lending – increased their net operating income.
Over all net profit before tax for Heartland increased to $15.3 million for the six months – up from $6.2 million in the same period, a year earlier.
The retail and consumer receivables book saw strong motor vehicle receivables growth of $39 million.
Chris Flood, head of retail at Heartland, has responsibility across the entire Marac book and tells DIESELtalk that: “under Heartland, Marac is continuing to operate in the motor vehicle and transport space, across our established distributor and consumer channels.
“From a Heartland perspective, our core business remains SMEs, in productive parts of the economy, very much where Marac cut its teeth. We are placing real focus on increasing our motor vehicle and transport lending via our intermediaries, and pushing further into this space,” says Flood.
