News

Business demonstrated great resilience in the wake of the Covid pandemic, making excellent progress against its strategic plan and posting first break-even year.

Belmont Green Finance Limited trading as Vida Homeloans (“BGFL”, “Belmont Green”, “Vida Homeloans” or “the Group”) publishes its Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2021, available here

Highlights

Positive results momentum demonstrates strength of business

• Company reports statutory profit of £2.7m
• Core profit before tax of £4.5m, up from £5.8m loss in 2020
• Net interest income increased to £34.5m from £23.9m in 2020
• Net interest margin increased in 2021 to 2.01% from 1.44% in 2020
• Gross yield on the Mortgage book improved by 30 basis points to 4.61%
• Funding costs substantially improved during the year, at 1.94% compared to 2.22% in 2020
• Gross new lending up from £257m in 2020 to £463m in 2021
• Net loans to customers grew by 10.8% in 2021 to £1.81bn
• BTL loans made up 74% of the loan book

Operational progress against strategic plan

• Successfully completed sixth and seventh securitisations, Tower Bridge Funding 2021-1 PL in March 2021 and Tower Bridge Funding 2021-2 PLC in June 2021
• Proved operational resilience and moved our service delivery to a position of consistency, further solidifying our distribution relationships
• Continued strengthening of the senior management group, with vast experience of operating in a PRA regulated environment
• Strong capital management driving much improved capital efficiency
• Belmont Green named one of the best financial services companies to work for in the latest Best Companies results, demonstrating consistent internal support from employees
• Belmont Green is a successful, sustainable, and responsible specialist mortgage lending business, which understands and responds to the needs of customers and stakeholders

Anth Mooney, Chief Executive Officer, said:

“It has been another successful year for Belmont Green. We have made significant progress as a business, focusing operational and technology investment on enhancing the intermediary experience and our operational productivity. Our highly scalable and future-proofed technology platform and flexible operating model allow us to remain nimble and adapt to the environmental challenges presented by the pandemic. As I said last year our 2021 objective was to break even; we have achieved that with the company making a statutory profit of £2.7m and achieving a core profit before tax of £4.5m.

“Going forward, our key business focus is to further scale our position in the mortgage market, capitalising on the growing demand for specialist mortgage loans in the UK. Another core strategic priority for Belmont Green is to further augment its well established wholesale funding franchise, and in time seek authorisation by the UK Prudential Regulatory Authority as a deposit taking bank.

“We continue to provide a critical service for borrowers looking to progress and grow in their lives and are fully committed to building out from our strong customer base to become the leading challenger brand in the UK specialist mortgage market.”