Virgin Money reported a rise in half-year profits, boosted by a rise in growth across its mortgages, savings and credit card businesses.
The challenger bank, which was recently purchased for £1.7 billion by CYBG, reported a 10 percent rise in underlying profit for the first six months of 2018.
Underlying profit came in at £141.6 million compared to £128.6 million in the first half of 2017.
Nevertheless, the bank said it expects a fall in full-year banking net interest, which demonstrates lending profitability.
The lender expects a full-year banking net interest of about 1.62 percent, lower than the 1.72 percent reported in 2017, following a fall in first-half margins.
Virgin Money also reported that credit card balances were £3.1 billion at the end of June, an improvement from £2.76 billion during the same period a year earlier.
“I am delighted to report that our customer-focused strategy of growth, quality and returns continued to drive strong financial and operational performance during the first half of the year. We also made good progress in delivering on our strategic initiatives.
We continue to maintain a strong balance sheet, as shown in our common equity tier 1 ratio of 16.3 per cent. This benefited from recent changes to our capital models to ensure they fully reflected the excellent credit quality of our lending portfolios.
The recommended offer made by CYBG for Virgin Money in June reflects confidence in our strategy, our track record of delivery and the complementary models of the two businesses and will accelerate the delivery of our strategic objectives.”
Gadhia is set to step down from her role as CEO following the completion of the CYBG acquisition.
Virgin Money was founded back in 1995 by Sir Richard Branson, operating in Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom.
Following competition of the CYBG deal, Virgin Money will be the UK’s sixth-largest bank.