Shawbrook Bank has grown its loanbook to £2,171m, a 17% uplift from £2,331m in December 2014, boosting profitability at the challenger bank by 94%.

In its first results statement since floating on the London stock exchange in April this year, the bank posted underlying profit before taxation increasing by 94% to £34.8m in the first half of the year from £17.9m in the first half of 2014.

Earnings per share for the first half of 2015 amounted to 11.1p. The bank said the increase in profitability was driven by a 17% increase in the loan book to £2,717m from £2,331m at 31 December 2014 (38% year-on-year growth from £1,969m at 30 June 2014).

Gross organic originations of £812m in the six months ended 30 June 2015 were 31% higher compared to £621m in the first half of 2014, as momentum from 2014 flowed into 2015.

The past 12 months of originations to 30 June 2015 were £1.56bn compared to £1.2bn the previous year and the group said it is on track to deliver against the targets that were made to the public markets during IPO.

These include plans to: increase gross originations to above £2bn per financial year by 2017; maintain a net interest margin at approximately 6% in the medium term; further reduce cost to income ratio to approximately 40% in the medium term with further improvement from there; and pay a modest maiden dividend in respect of the financial year ending 31 December 2016 with the target rising to 30% of post-tax statutory profits by 2017 and a progressive policy thereafter.

Tom Wood, interim chief executive officer and chief financial officer at Shawbrook, said: “The business remains well placed to respond to the changing regulatory environment and deliver growth by maximising opportunities in our existing markets, capitalising on the embedded growth in our current loan originations and working closely with customers and business partners to develop new products and expand into new specialist markets.

“While competition remains high and we saw some slowdown in volumes ahead of the election following a very strong Q1, we remain confident that we will continue to originate good quality, profitable business and remain on track to deliver our targets outlined at the IPO, including in excess of £1.6bn of originations in 2015 and targeted annual net loan book growth of £0.7 – £0.8bn.”