12 Stocks of Christmas: International Personal Finance

International Personal Finance (LON:IPF) - A risky international lender but the valuation is hard to ignore

Market cap at the time of writing: £270m, at a share price of 124p

I’ve covered IPF and written positively about it for a long time, and now I want it on my annual watchlist.

IPF is an international consumer lender serving people who for a variety of reasons do not access credit from the mainstream banking system. Many of IPF’s customers would be considered high-risk by other lenders.

The flagship product is home credit but IPF also provides credit cards and online loans.

I interviewed the management team in July, publishing my notes here on Stockopedia.

The main challenge faced by the company in recent times has been the introduction of a cap on the cost of credit in Poland, which resulted in a major restructuring, redundancies, and the transition to greater emphasis on a credit card product.

CEO Gerard Ryan told me that while the exceptional costs associated with Poland are not finished yet, he thinks there is less planned activity now in terms of new regulations across IPF’s markets. The Czech Republic is the only European country where IPF...