UK bank Shawbrook's profit nearly doubles on loan book growth

(Reuters) - Newly-listed UK bank Shawbrook Group Plc said its first-half profit nearly doubled, driven by an increase in its loan book. The bank, which was founded in 2011 and went public this year, said it remained well-placed to respond to the changing regulatory environment. UK Chancellor George Osborne announced an 8 percent surcharge on banks' profits effective January 2016. Underlying pretax profit rose to 34.8 million pounds for the first half ended June 30, from 17.9 million pounds a year earlier. The bank's loan book grew 38 percent to 2.72 billion pounds from 1.97 billion pounds a year earlier. Shawbrook said net interest margin remained stable at 6.1 percent in the first half of 2015, helped by continued reduction in the cost of funds. The bank is aiming to maintain net interest margin at about 6 percent in the medium term, according to the target set during the initial public offering. Shawbrook is one of several "challenger banks" to emerge since the financial crisis as the government and customers alike sought alternatives to Britain's "Big Five" lenders - Lloyds , HSBC , Royal Bank of Scotland , Barclays and Santander UK . The bank said its balance sheet was positioned to benefit from rising interest rates. However, the timing of the anticipated benefit was uncertain. (Reporting by Aashika Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Anupama Dwivedi)