3 days ago
Monzo profit soars as British challenger bank boosts lending
The British lender now has more than 12 million customers, a rise of 2.4 million during the year, while deposits grew 48% to GBP16.6 billion.
Monzo Bank said its profit quadrupled last year with a burgeoning loan book lifting revenue, as the mobile bank works toward an eventual stock market debut.
The British lender posted a pretax profit of GBP60.4 million ($105.22 million) for the year through March compared to GBP15.4 million profit in the 13 months prior, with revenue jumping to GBP1.2 billion from GBP880 million.
The 10-year-old firm lent GBP1.9 billion to its customers — a rise of 36% from a year ago.
'We've grown from a startup challenging the status quo, to a household name, a leading brand and the UK's 7th largest bank by customer numbers,' Chief Executive Officer TS Anil said in a statement.
He added that Monzo now has more than 12 million customers, a rise of 2.4 million during the year, while deposits grew 48% to GBP16.6 billion. A third of customers are using Monzo as their primary bank, and the company has launched individual savings accounts to encourage customers to bring in even more of their money.
Monzo is working with Morgan Stanley to arrange meetings with potential investors for an initial public offering that could take place as early as the first half of next year, Sky News reported last month.
Anil told Bloomberg TV that Monzo 'will make a good public company one day', yet it was too early to talk about the details of any IPO plans. A listing could value Monzo at more than GBP6 billion, according to Sky.
The firm's customers are mostly in the UK. For years, Monzo has been looking to expand in the US, and last year hired Conor Walsh, a former executive at Block's Cash App, to lead its business in the US.
The firm also opened a Dublin office last year, marking its official European expansion.
Last year, Monzo allowed employees to offload some of their stock in a secondary share sale that valued the company at US$5.9 billion.
The bank booked a GBP53.4 million one-time cost linked to the share sale in its latest accounts.
Investors in this round included Alphabet's independent growth fund Capital G, as well as new investors such as London-based venture capital firm Hedosophia.
Chart: Bloomberg
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