Judo Bank is counting on a broad-based recovery to optimise what CEO Joseph Healy dubbed “a significant growth opportunity” for the neobank.
Reporting its first results as an ASX-listed company Judo incurred a statutory net loss after tax of A$16.1 million, impacted by $23 million in one-off costs in relation to the IPO late last year. Its pro-forma net profit was $3 million.
The bank now has 2200 borrowers and a loan book of $5.1 billion, with the average loan in excess of $2 million for the pure-play SME lender.
CEO Joseph Healy said more than 80 per cent of business was originated during the pandemic period, and the bank received no requests for forbearance since the beginning of the year.
Around $350 million, or 7 per cent of loans have been made under the SME Loan Recovery Scheme and its predecessors.
There have been no loan write-offs.
“There’s been no change in the loan mix, product mix or strategy”, Healy said, though a focus on higher margin asset finance loans continues.
“Margin management is totally in our control,” CFO Chris Bayliss said of a margin that exceeds 3 per cent, the highest in the industry.
The war for talent is generating plenty of “double digit” inflationary pressure within the business.
Relationship bankers offered employment by the bank at times received counter-offers at a premium of 20 per cent to their current salaries, Healy said, and he grumbled at he “shortage” of qualified technology staff.
The bank expects the RBA cash rate to be 1.25 per cent by the end of 2022 and business credit growth to reach 9 per cent by the end of the year.
Healy told an analysts briefing Judo Bank was confident it will be able to self-fund the capital needed to maintain and meet lending growth targets, without recourse to a call on the market.