Merchant finance, a new commercial leasing business staffed by former CIT executives, will form the core of the growth plans for FlexiGroup over the coming year, as the niche financier seeks to broaden its revenues and customers away from small ticket leasing over items such as laptop computers.A presentation published yesterday in connection with the group's full-year profit shows that it is targeting margins of 30 per cent and 35 per cent on each of its Certegy point of sale and new Flexi Commercial business units. The established FlexiRent business is targeting margins of 25 per cent.Certegy, which FlexiGroup bought in late 2008, produced growth in assets financed of 49 per cent over the year to June 2010, with $290 million in assets financed across 150,000 transactions. This remains a low average value per item financed, of less than $2000.Efforts to increase the average value will see the group target niches such as commercial solar installation, fleet management, and telephone systems, according to the presentation.As foreshadowed last week, the group's net profit increased 24 per cent to $41.6 million in 2010. The group also received a tax credit of $18.4 million, taking the annual profit to $60 million.Credit quality indicators for the group improved slightly over the year. The most severe delinquencies improved, with loans 30 days or more past due equal to 3.2 per cent of receivables at June 2010, down from 3.5 per cent in 2009.However, loans between one day and 30 days past due were steady, at 4.4 per cent. The group cut its bad debt expense by 10 per cent.