Skipton pledges to keep on buying trail

Skipton Building Society said yesterday it is to continue with its aggressive acquisitions strategy, claiming that its "entrepreneurial philosophy" had enabled it to deliver record profits this year.

During the past three months Britain's seventh largest building society has acquired majority shareholdings in two companies and sold off a third. Announcing first-half pre-tax profits up to £24.8m from £23.1m a year earlier, the society said it would "continue to seek further acquisitions proactively".

In May Skipton took a majority shareholding in the internet and IT solutions provider Cast Systems, and sold its share dealing arm Dealwise to stockbroker TD Waterhouse for £82m. On Friday it announced its latest acquisition - a majority shareholding in mortgage lending and packaging business Pink Home Loans, bought for an initial £2.75m.

The sale of Dealwise has enabled Skipton to return almost £50m of profits to long-term members in the form of an "interest credit" worth up to £1,000 per person. This scheme, announced last week, will see 290,000 members receiving either extra interest on their savings or a reduction in their September mortgage payment.

John Goodfellow, the North Yorkshire-based company's chief executive, said that even allowing for the money raised by the Dealwise sale, the underlying results demonstrated a strong performance from the society and its nine subsidiaries.

"Each company has a developing business plan, including innovative e-commerce strategies, designed to generate additional profits," he said. "Skipton's entrepreneurial philosophy offers its members something which no other building society does - a share in the commercial success and earnings potential of its subsidiary companies."