The results show gross mortgage advances of £1.3 billion, almost double the its natural market share, according to the Coventry. Its net mortgage lending of £338 million, represents 12.7% of net lending undertaken across the market as a whole. 99% of its loan book is funded by retail savings, reserves and capital.
The society’s operating profit before impairment and exceptional items was £40.1 million (2008 first half year: £38.3 million), whilst profit before tax was £36.2 million (2008 first half year: £35.5 million) and profit after tax was £31.1 million (2008 first half year: £25.1 million).
Commenting on the results, David Stewart, chief executive, said: "I believe these are excellent results, in particular as we have been operating in some of the most difficult market conditions imaginable.
“Throughout the credit crisis the Society has remained active in the mortgage market and last year Coventry was one of the ten largest lenders in the UK for the first time in its history. Although we have reduced the amount of new mortgage lending from that undertaken in the comparable period in 2008, our market share is still almost double what would be expected given our size.
“In the first half of 2009, gross advances totalled £1.3 billion (2008: £1.9 billion). At £338 million, the Coventry's net lending was equivalent to 12.7% of that undertaken across the market as a whole as many of our competitors were compelled to shrink their balance sheets. The average loan to value (LTV) ratio on new advances made in 2009 was 53%.
“At 30 June 2009, only 1.06% of mortgages were more than three months in arrears, a figure that compares extremely favourably with the Council of Mortgage Lenders' (CML) average of 2.43%. This favourable position is also reflected in six months arrears levels, where our rate of 0.50% is around one third of the market average.
“In common with others, we have undertaken buy-to-let business and at 30 June 2009 our buy-to-let portfolio totalled £2.9 billion, representing around 22% of our mortgage book. However, we have not experienced the problems reported elsewhere. We have negligible exposure to the higher risk city centre flat and loan portfolio markets and insisted from the start that all buy-to-let borrowers had substantial deposits in place.
“As a result of these measures, the Coventry's buy-to-let mortgages continue to perform exceptionally well, and very substantially better than industry norms. At 30 June 2009, just 0.68% of buy-to-let cases were more than three months in arrears - only 27% of the CML average of 2.49%.”
