Pawnbroker H&T Group (LON:HAT) said it traded well last year, despite difficult markets, and posted a 23.6% increase in pre-tax profit.
It stabilised its core pawnbroking business and also made progress developing other revenue lines, the firm told investors.
Pre-tax profit for the group to end 2015 was £6.8mln compared to £5.5mln in 2014, mainly due to the growth in personal loans and other services.
It proposed a 66.7% increase in the final dividend to 4.5p
The hundred year old firm said the UK economy had improved over the past year and it had have seen a halt in the decline of its pledge book with some worthwhile growth in other product lines, notably Foreign Exchange, Personal Loans and Buyback.
"A number of initiatives have been launched which are still in the proving period; we will expand and develop those that are successful over coming months," it said.
Its gross pledge book increased 1.3% to £39mln compared to £38.5mln the year before, while the number of stores in the estate reduced by two to 89.
Total lending in pawnboking increased 3.9% to £98.2mln (2014: £94.5mln).
The personal loan book advanced 35.5% to £4.2mln from £3.1mln , while Foreign Exchange gross profits increased 75% to £1.4mln from £0.8mln in 2014.
The group's online development continues with the implementation of a new mobile optimised website, it said, and there has been an improvement in traffic.
Looking at the different divisions, pawnbroking scrap swung to a profit in the year of £0.1mln compared to a loss of £0.2mln in 2014, given the relative stability in average gold prices between 2014 and 2015.
Retail sales decreased 4.5% to £29.5mln (2014: £30.9mln) and gross profit decreased 3.7% to £10.3mln (2014: £10.7mln).
The 'other services' segment has increased 44.4% to £3.9mln (2014: £2.7mln) principally as a result of the improvements in the recently introduced FX and Buyback products.
Current trading is in line with management's expectations for 2016, it said.
H&T is adapting and rebuilding, said City firm Numis in a note to clients, rating shares 'add' and targeting 225p, after what it called 'solid' results.
Pre-tax profit, while still below historic levels, reflected a 20% year-on-year improvement in profitability (FY14 £5.9m), said the broker. Net debt ended the period at £2.1m (PY £9.7m), supporting a full year dividend of 8.0p, representing a 4.3% yield.
Shares in HAT added 5.41% to 195p.