Provident Financial grants EUR 55 mln loans in Romania while upping local revenues by 10% over six months

Provident Financial issued EUR 54.9 million in loans in the first half of this year in Romania, a 12 percent growth on the same period in 2012. The volume of loans granted by the Romanian subsidiary stays at about 10 percent of the total loans issued by the parent company during this period. In Romania, the company's revenues exceeded EUR 37.2 million in the first half of 2013, which was also a 10 percent increase on the first half of 2012. “In the first six months of this year we continued to invest in the expansion of our operations and in the development of our people. We already opened 10 new agencies and we have plans for a similar geographical expansion in the second half of this year, which allows us to cover almost entirely the urban population from all the counties in the country. We keep our objective of having more than 500.000 active clients in Romania over the next years”, said Ivo Kalik, general manager Provident Financial România. With a portfolio of 269,000 active clients, Provident Financial has invested EUR 180 million in Romania since entering the local market 7 years ago. The company has more than 780 employees and collaborates with about 3,800 independent agents in over 70 cities in the country. Apart from expansion throughout Romania, Provident Financial has also branched out to neighbor Bulgaria, where it plans to expand based on the infrastructure that was developed in Romania. Provident Financial is part of the British group International Personal Finance (IPF), that has over 2.4 million clients in six countries from Central and Eastern Europe, as well as in Mexico. The group posted revenues of EUR 423 million in the first half of 2013, and a gross profit of EUR 49 million. During this period, the total value of the loans given by the group was of EUR 571 million. The company provides small loans, of up to RON 3,500 (the equivalent of some EUR 800) on the short term. editor@romania-insider.com