Provident Financial Romania grants EUR 42 mln of loans in H1, revenues up

Consumer credit company Provident Financial Romania granted in the first half of this year loans worth more than EUR 42 million, up from 30 million EUR at the end of June 2009. Its revenues went up to nearly 30 million EUR from 17.5 million EUR in the first half of 2009. The company had at the end of June 2010 over 187,000 customers, up from 120,000 customers in June 2009. "Our results in the first semester are yet another proof of the resiliency of our business model and of the measures we undertook to ensure a healthy growth. Our responsible management of lending criteria ensured the quality of our portfolio and a tighter management of costs helped us reduce expenses. We maintain our initial estimation that the business will be profitable at the end of this year,” said Russell Johnsen, the managing director of Provident Financial Romania. In the first quarter of 2010, Provident opened its first branch in the north-western part of the country, in Oradea, part of an investment of over EUR 14 million, made by the company in infrastructure and staff in the first six months of 2010. The total value of investments made in the Romanian business has now exceeded EUR 65 million. Provident offers home credits, a service through which customers can receive the money within 48 hours at their home, where an agent will then visit them to collect the repayments. For a minium loan of RON 400, paid in 42 weeks, the client will pay back RON 523, at an annual interest rate (DAE) of 98 percent, according to the loan calculator provided by Provident. For the highest loan, RON 3,000, paid out in 52 weeks, the client pays back RON 4.061 in total, at an annual interest rate of 79.3 percent. Provident now collaborates with over 2,700 independent agents in over 40 cities across the country. Provident Financial Romania is part of the UK-based International Personal Finance (IPF) group, which now has over 2.1 million customers in five countries in central and Eastern Europe and in Mexico. International Personal Finance announced a half-year pre-tax profit of EUR 36.3 million from continuing operations, while the value of issued loans at group level exceeded EUR 419 million.