Heartland Group has bounced back strongly from a series of impairments a year ago to report an after-tax profit of $48.84 million for the six months to December 31, 2025. The company's paying a half-year dividend of 3.5c per share, up 1.5c on the figure a year ago.
The result compares with an impairment-hit profit of just $3.61 million for the same period a year ago.
The group, which has banking operations in both New Zealand and Australia - and specialises in reverse mortgages - says it is on track to meet guidance for the full 2026 financial year of at least $85 million.
Heartland said its key performance figure, underlying return on equity was up some 540 basis points (bps) to 7.3% compared with the same period a year ago and was up 142 bps from the second-half of the 2025 financial year.
The company's average net interest margin expanded by 51 bps to 3.92%.
Heartland reported "consistent" reverse mortgage growth in both New Zealand and Australia, with gross finance receivables up 15.2% (to $1.33 billion) and 18.9% (to A$2.17 billion) respectively.
The company said significant asset quality improvements in the group reflected the benefits of "more prescriptive" collections and recoveries policies, and a refined strategic focus on core product sets.
The realisation of non-strategic assets continued to progress ahead of expectations, with a recovery rate in excess of 90%, "and is tracking to be largely complete by 30 June 2026".
"...Heartland is well positioned for growth, holding excess capital across the group," the company said.
Heartland's results presentation is here.
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