UPDATE 2-Currency gains help boost UK lender IPF's profit

(Adds details, quotes, shares)

By Clara Ferreira-Marques

LONDON, July 23 (Reuters) - British lender International Personal Finance (IPF.L) posted a 39 percent rise in first-half profit on Wednesday, boosted by steady customer and loan growth and favourable exchange rates in its key markets. IPF, which offers small loans to consumers in central Europe, Romania and Mexico, said it made a pretax profit of 22.1 million pounds ($44.3 million), at the higher end of forecasts. It will pay an interim dividend of 2.3p, up 21.1 percent, as part of its policy of moving to a 25 percent payout ratio.

"Clearly there has been some currency advantage, but the underlying profit performance has been strong. This is a real business, not just currency tailwind," Chairman Christopher Rodrigues told Reuters in a telephone interview.

In its core central European markets, IPF's pre-tax profit climbed almost 38 percent, again ahead of forecasts. Underlying profit there in local currency rose just shy of 16 percent.

Its established central European businesses alone rose 47.8 percent, or more than 19 percent at constant exchange rates.

Shares in IPF rose on the news, climbing 1.8 percent by 0800 GMT to 287p, beating a 1.5 percent rise in the FTSE 350 index for general financial stocks .FTNMX8770.

"IPF remains one of the very few UK listed financial services businesses that we see delivering more than 20 percent underlying EPS growth," Numis analysts said in a morning note.

"While IPF is not the cheapest UK listed lender it is one of very few to offer growth."