Intl Personal Finance warns of forex hit to profit

LONDON Dec 15 (Reuters) - Emerging markets lender International Personal Finance (IPF) warned on Thursday that adverse movements in foreign exchange rates could hit its profits, although it added it had continued to issue more credit.

International Personal Finance offers home credit to consumers in Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Mexico and Romania.

However, the company said its earnings could be hit as a result of a weakness in the currencies of many of those eastern European currencies against sterling.

"The current state of the global economy continues to make the outlook for 2012 unusually uncertain. In addition, there has been significant volatility in foreign exchange markets in 2011 and more recently a weakening of our trading currencies against sterling," IPF said in a statement.

"Overall, we estimate that compared to the effective rates used to translate overseas profits in 2011, current FX (foreign exchange) rates would negatively impact reported profit by 14 percent," it added.

Shares in International Personal Finance closed down 3 percent at 181.80 pence on Tuesday, giving the company a market capitalisation of around 470 million pounds.