Welcome to Credit Corp's 2025 Half-Year Results Presentation. I'm Thomas Beregi, the CEO of Credit Corp. Our objective is leadership of the credit-impaired consumer segment. We define our market as people who have had trouble with credit, most having defaulted on a previous credit obligation. We operate in very competitive businesses, and three competencies are critical to our success. We must have superior analytics and discipline because our business is all about pricing and managing risk. Our operations must be strong to compete, and we must be responsible and compliant to deliver on our promise to our debt sale clients, other stakeholders, and the community. This ensures that our business can continue. Applying these competencies, we target to deliver strong earnings growth into the future while producing acceptable returns, which we define as a return on equity of 16% with a conservative financial structure.
We have strong metrics and approaches for each of these competencies across our three businesses. In the current year, our focus has delivered to expectation. In the U.S., we are well down the path of building a very competitive platform for growth. After a period of exceptional growth, Wallet Wizard loan volumes have started to moderate, with other products now set to maintain momentum in the lending segment. And after several years of runoff due to reduced market supply, earnings from the Australian and New Zealand debt buying business have stabilized. And our financial results are also on track, which means the net profit after tax was up by 32% to $ 44.1 million over the half year, driven by a big step up in earnings from the lending segment due to an enlarged starting loan book.
We continue to work hard on improving our U.S. operation, and this has produced a solid half year, with collections up by 12% despite two years of reduced purchasing and no improvement in external conditions, and a 28% lift in productivity, giving us the ability to grow purchasing without increasing headcount. These operational improvements have put us in a great position to continue investing in the U.S., and we remain on track to secure $150 million of purchases in that market. Consumer loan book growth has moderated in line with our expectations, while our credit metrics remain strong, which is contributing to a big step up in earnings from the lending business. And that's at a time as we look to newer products for additional growth.
Our unique Wizard digital credit card is on track to be released from pilot over the balance of the year, and there is the prospect that used car prices may continue to fall to levels which would enable a significant increase in auto lending. Runoff in the Australia and New Zealand debt purchasing business has now stabilized, and we're on track to purchase enough to hold collections and earnings into the future from this part of our business, and that's why we continue to manage the operation tightly to minimize the impact of reduced purchasing on earnings. We've also maintained our differentiated position as a responsible operator across all our businesses. Our external dispute metrics remain market-leading. We continue to maintain the most highly rated response to consumer hardship, and our lower-priced and more affordable lending products are appreciated by our customers.
We have the financial capacity to take any opportunities to increase investment that may arise from this unique position. Our gearing remains low, and we retain $150 million in undrawn borrowing capacity. Just to conclude with our guidance for 2025, our guidance is unchanged from the start of the year. Purchase debt ledger investment is expected to remain in line with the amount outlaid in 2024, but net lending will be lower, and we're expecting a net profit after tax in the range of $ 90 million-$ 100 million, which represents strong earnings growth of 11%-23% against last year's underlying result. Thank you.