The lending companies on Mintos are preparing or have already prepared and shared their annual consolidated financial performance reports for 2020. We bring to attention the lending companies, one by one, as they share their results and we publish them on each company’s respective page. In this article, you will also see a dedicated comment for most of the lending companies by their CEO on the highlights of the past year.
Submission dates for financial reports may vary up to several months, depending on local regulatory requirements. Taking into account in which countries lending companies on Mintos are registered, we expect to share all reports by the end of July 2021.
Recent updates
13 May:
20 May:
28 May:
11 June:
22 June:
16 July:
DelfinGroup
View DelfinGroup’s Annual Report
Chairman of the Board of AS DelfinGroup Didzis Ādmīdiņš:
“In 2020, the consolidated audited total revenue of the Latvian financial service company AS DelfinGroup increased by 9% compared to the previous year, amounting to €23.7 million. The loan portfolio increased by 10%, reaching €34.7 million. EBITDA amounted to €9.3 million, and consolidated net profit reached €3.9 million. Meanwhile, profit before taxes increased by 9.1% last year and reached €4.6 million.
2020 was a year of change for the company. DelfinGroup was not only affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and its respective constraints imposed by the government but also by the major restructuring process within the company itself, starting to prepare for an initial public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq Riga stock exchange in the second half of 2021. To prepare for the listing, both the company’s corporate identity and brand name were changed last year. As of February 2020, the company’s name is DelfinGroup. A closer consolidation of the companies belonging to the group was also initiated: all the core functions were transferred to the parent company of the group and the company’s share capital was increased to EUR 4 million. During the previous year, preparations were also launched to change the legal form of the core company from a limited liability to a joint-stock company; this process concluded in early 2021. Along with the reorganization, the company formed its first environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) report for 2020.
In 2020, DelfinGroup continued the expansion of the Banknote pawnshop network. The company aims to improve the accessibility of financial services for people throughout Latvia (especially in rural areas) and to create a more financially inclusive society. The company believes modern financial services should be available not only in Riga but also in other regions of Latvia, as well as online. Another strategic decision of DelfinGroup initiated and implemented in 2020 was to raise awareness of the circular economy. The company considers resource planning and renewal, as well as the reusability of goods, to be the cornerstones of the green agenda aimed to reduce the carbon footprint and consumption of the limited resources of the Earth. Banknote pawn shops are providing a variety of exchangeable pre-owned goods throughout Latvia, contributing to the environmental efforts. Pre-owned goods that are no longer needed for existing users can be tested, repaired, and sold to further owners in any Banknote shop throughout Latvia. All the pre-owned goods available for sale on the Banknote network can be easily selected and purchased in the Banknote.lv online store.
In 2020, significant changes were also initiated to the corporate governance of the company by forming a professional supervisory board with independent board members. The public selection and nomination process was closed in March 2021, and the new members of the supervisory board – Gatis Kokins, Dr. Edgars Voļskis, Mārtiņš Bičevskis, and Jānis Pizičs – were appointed by the shareholders for the next 5 years as supervisory board members, contributing to the DelfinGroup strategic management as financial, corporate governance and fintech experts. Agris Evertovskis, chair of the supervisory board, continues to lead the supervisory board.
In 2020, DelfinGroup completed raising the bond financing of €5 million started in the previous year, which was included for trade on the Nasdaq Riga First North list in Q3. In addition, the company attracted €3.5 million in a closed, unsecured bond offering. In Q4 2020, the company made the final repayment of the principal amount for the bonds issued in 2013 (issue: €3.5 million). The Company paid quarterly dividends totaling €3 million in accordance with the approved dividend policy in 2020.
On 23 March, AS DelfinGroup announced plans for the initial public offering (IPO) in the Nasdaq Riga stock exchange in 2021.”
IuteCredit
View IuteCredit’s Annual Report
Tarmo Sild, Chief Executive Officer, IuteCredit:
“In 2020, most of the events, thoughts, and consequences were circulating the pandemic. That year is behind us. This is the first thoroughly positive thing to mention. The second and even more important summary is that we grew the business and felt the society’s rethink on benefits of digitalization.
As a tall monument to limited human foresight, management aimed for 2020 “to continue aggressive growth by doubling the balance sheet once again beyond € 200 million, and by increasing annual revenue by 50% to € 75 million, while keeping the good quality of the balance sheet and profitability of our business.” Management also firmly predicted for 2020 “the increasing role of regulations on the business.” That is the part of the forecast that we got right – accidentally – but not for the reasons we had in mind at the time. It was the pandemic and governments’ reaction that caught us and partially steered us.
It became suddenly obvious since March 2020 that the aggressive growth target will not be met. The group concentrated in Q2 on cashing in the receivables and on the disciplined contraction of the balance sheet, both assets and liabilities, while feeling free-fall in customer loan repayments and new loan demand. We added buffers for future loan losses and adapted to the hasty government regulations. After passing the contraction phase with relatively good results and limited damage, the group started to accelerate again in Q3 and became optimistic about its growth and reversal of the loan provisions. In Q4, we kept the optimism despite the second wave. Our loan disbursement volumes in Q4 were short of targets, while repayments were stronger than expected, and we succeeded in tapping 10 million Eurobond on top of the existing 40 million. It was reassuring to get the investor confidence vote and incoming cash streams from both customers and investors.
As a result, we ended the year at an advanced point compared to the year-end of 2019. Annual revenue comprised € 56 million, which is above 2019 revenue of € 51 million but significantly below the targeted € 75 million. The balance sheet reached € 117 million, which was short of aimed € 200 million but exceeded the 2019 level of € 106 million. Inside the balance sheet, the share of net loans to customers remained at the same level of € 79 million, but the amount of provisions for potential loan losses has been increased to € 16 million from € 13 million a year ago. Our liabilities increased year-on-year by € 7 million to € 95 million (2019: € 88 million), and our cash position increased year-on-year by more than € 13 million and peaked above € 19 million. All in all, we ended the year with a larger, stronger, and significantly more liquid balance sheet which we aim to use aggressively in 2021. Strong internal development is not instantly visible on the balance sheet, as the Group continued investing in financial technology and met new financial productivity records in 2020.
By the end of the year, we had more than 130,000 performing loan customers in 4 countries. Net profit of 2020 was short of the target as we reached € 5 million instead of the targeted € 7 million. Equity return in 2020 was the smallest of the last 5 years: only 24%. Then again, we expect to have a growth boost in 2021 and beyond, as we believe that we got many things right in 2020.
For 2021, having in mind the ongoing adaptation to the pandemic and other challenges in the lending and payments industry, management remains in affirmative tunes. The Group must also benefit from its digitalized value streams, customer self-service solutions, and opportunities on the acquisitions market that can be combined with our know-how on business integration. Business in Bulgaria should be restarted, and all elements of the balance sheet should be fully put to work. We expect to almost double our balance sheet to € 200 million by making total revenue above € 70 million with both loans and payment services, and we are expecting at least € 10 million net profit. The number of performing customers by the end of 2021 should exceed 200,000.”
ExpressCredit
View ExpressCredit’s (Namibia) Annual Report
View ExpressCredit’s (Botswana) Annual Report
You can learn more about ExpressCredit in its updated company presentation.
Finclusion (South Africa)
View Finclusion’s (South Africa) Annual Report
Gerrie Fourie, Country Manager South Africa, Finclusion:
“Smartadvance (pty) Limited (“smartadvance”) concluded a turbulent 2020 on the back of a challenging economic environment amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. At the onset of the pandemic, the company focused strongly on asset quality – which saw the company achieve an aggregate NPL of 7.5% for 2020 with collections of 89% (compared to the industry average of 78%). The company is already reporting in full compliance with IFRS9, and will continue utilizing its Expected Credit Losses impairment model, and as such, be conservative in its financial estimates. It reduced its loan portfolio by around 14% during the year while maintaining healthy net interest margins.
Despite the improvement in asset quality, the company suffered from its subscale operations – and incurred significant further one-off costs during the year to drive optimal positioning for 2021. During the year, several initiatives were carried out to position the group to return to profitability, including rationalizing operating expenses (OPEX) which achieved a 25% year-on-year reduction. The group leverages its data-driven lending model for driving sales, with employee costs attributing 41% of total OPEX (industry average is around 62%). Coupled with a predominantly fixed cost lending base (fixed costs / total OPEX: 74%), the growth in our operating scale will achieve a healthy return on investment. The benefits of optimizing OPEX during 2020 will be further realized in 2021, with cost-to-income projected to be 64% at this year’s close. This will progressively improve to reach 48% in 2024 as the business scales up its operations and achieves better economies of scale.
The company expects to further strengthen its balance sheet during 2021 and anticipates growing the loan book to at least C R200m in the upcoming financial year on the back of external funding lines materializing. With anticipated cost levels and a steady credit loss ratio, the company should see record profits in the upcoming financial year.”
Kviku
Nikita Lomakin, CEO of Kviku:
- “In 2020, our loan portfolio in Russia grew by 40% year-on-year despite the Covid-19 situation, thanks to the fully online nature of our lending business.
- None of our operating processes were affected by any lockdown measures introduced by the government, as all our employees have been working remotely since 2013.
- Default rates have remained unchanged due to very low amounts (under €100) of an average issued loan and no business loans in our portfolio.
- We have currently zero currency exposure in Russia, as 70% of our liabilities are RUB-denominated and the rest are hedged via EUR/RUB call options.
- Our license in Russia allowed us to maintain strong funding diversification with a solid long term (up to 3 years) deposit base in Russia from retail investors, as well as a 5 year credit line from local banks.
- Our fixed costs remained historically low at around 2% of our monthly issuance volumes (payroll, credit scoring, processing, IT infrastructure), which allowed us to remain profitable during volatile 2020.
- We see continued strong demand for online alternative lending in Russia in the beginning of 2021, as traditional financial institutions continue to suffer from the COVID aftermath.”
Financials:
- 1.5x year-on-year growth of volume of issued loans in 2020 (€45 million).
- Net loan portfolio after reserves fully covers outstanding liabilities (€20 million).
- Profit before tax in 2020 grew over 40% in RUB terms vs 2019 to €1.6 million, despite market volatility.
- Cash cushion of €1 million on the balance sheet as of 2020 year end.
- Top position in online POS country rankings, with 7 out of 10 top e-commerce merchants working with Kviku in Russia.
Future Plans:
“We aim to keep the growth momentum (1.5x projected growth year-on-year) in our core market in Russia in 2021, while also increasing our footprint in other countries of operation (Philippines, Kazakhstan, Poland, Ukraine, Spain). Strong financial performance and continued growth of Kviku Group in 2020 amid volatile market conditions proved once again the sustainability of our business model and solid experience of the management team. We look optimistically into 2021 aiming to launch new countries in South East Asia and remain profitable in existing countries of operations.”
LimeZaim
Managing Director of LimeZaim, Olesya Kiseleva:
“The entire financial market faced problems and felt the crisis in 2020. Nonetheless, during that time, there were some positive changes in the Russian microfinance market, and LimeZaim itself showed improvements. First of all, there was an increase in demand for instalment loans, which is LimeZaim’s preferred product because there is a long-term relationship with clients with high payment discipline.
The trend is due to a change in consumer behavior. For the second half of 2021, we see a monthly increase in applications in the range of 5-15%. Also, we felt the migration of clients from the offline microfinance sector to the online sector. Since 2013, our company has been working only online, and for us, this is certainly a positive trend. We also experienced an increase in bank clients (clients with no experience in microfinance loans). In total, 2% of the new clients were bank clients. These are clients with good payment discipline. The purpose of the loans to such clients is usually the payment of a mortgage payment. This motivation initially demonstrates the desire of clients to avoid overdue debt.
For us, 2020 was an opportunity to undergo stress testing in practice, to test the business model in new conditions. Despite a serious increase in overdue debt at the end of Q1- Q2 2020, by tightening the company’s scoring policy we were able to achieve the planned volumes of issuances in the 4th quarter, to maintain profitability, and to expand the client base, and start 2021 with excellent indicators. Already in April 2021, Lime set its own record of originations of 500 million rubles and increased its working capital to 630 million rubles.”
Mogo Finance Group
View Mogo Finance Group’s Annual Report
Modestas Sudnius, Mogo Finance Group CEO:
“In 2020, not only did we pursue our business and corporate goals set for Mogo Finance Group`s continued growth and development, but we also rose up to the challenges posed by the global coronavirus pandemic that affected a number of business sectors around the world. Despite the turbulence brought by Covid-19, Mogo Finance ended its fiscal year 2020 on a strong note, producing record-breaking revenues, EBITDA, and excellent portfolio quality. These results were driven by effective capital allocation, with a profound focus on mature markets yielding the highest returns, markets, and products with the best unit economics, as well as overall cost optimization. The Group made strategic acquisitions that further strengthened its performance. Also, the pandemic required us to further strengthen our debt collection strategies and introduce more flexible schedules. The strong focus on collection strategies rendered steadily growing cash inflow. Our customer support team`s ability to design individual solutions paid off with more regular repayments. On top of that, we refined our underwriting policy that performed exceptionally well. We managed to build Mogo Finance Group`s resilience and a strong footing for 2021.”
Maris Kreics, Mogo Finance Group CFO:
“Mogo Finance continued to show strong upside in 2020, proving the sustainability of its predominantly secured loans and their importance to customers even against a backdrop of economic turmoil.
Covid hit us unexpectedly in 2020, our response was – stricter underwriting and focus on debt collection strategies. It is encouraging to note that, despite the stricter underwriting guidelines we introduced in March – on early stage of global pandemic – we continued to record strong demand for our products and thus increased loan issuances month after month. At the same time since June, we have observed a decline in the non-performing portfolio across all operating markets. It was particularly pleasing that the full effect of the bolt-on acquisitions of profitable mature consumer credit companies made during 2020 have already materialized revenue-wise. Additionally, it allowed us to recognize a gain on the acquisition price. At the same time, we offset the acquisition-related 62% employee build-up on administrative expenses to an only moderate increase of 13% in employee salaries through the cost control measures initiated in early 2020. Less pleasing, although not as bad as expected, was the currency situation.
Nevertheless, we were able to generate a profit of EUR 0.7 million from our successful hedging activities in 2020. The record-high EBITDA of more than EUR 45 million, although offset by unprecedently high FX expense, still resulted in the net profit of EUR 1.6 million allowing Mogo Finance to have its fifth profitable year in a row.”
Mikro Kapital (Moldova)
View Mikro Kapital’s (Moldova) Annual Report
Sergiu Turcanu, CEO Of Mikro Kapital Moldova:
Over the past three years of work, our company demonstrates steady growth in the main financial indicators of business such as the continuous growth of the portfolio, profitability of the portfolio, increasing the number of disbursed loans and the number of clients served.
At the end of 2019, our GLP reached 277 million MDL or about €14.4 million (a growth of 27% in comparison with the end of the 2018 year). During the year 2020, the growth continued, but at a slower pace. The main causes for slower portfolio growth were the Covid-19 pandemic and severe drought. Contrary to the difficult situation, we managed to have a portfolio of over 364 million MLD.
During the last three years of activity, the quality of our portfolio has been maintained in very good quality, less so in the 3rd quarter of 2020 when quality worsened from 4.7% to 9.1 % for PAR>30 +restructured. Many deferrals of payments (for 3 months in general) for our clients have been made in April-May 2020 because of the Emergency situation and shutting down of businesses. However, as of September 2020, more than 85% of those loans were paying already on time.
The restructured portfolio has increased because of drought which affected the agricultural producers mainly from the South and Centre of Moldova.
Income from financial services from 2018 to 2020 grew constantly and continues to grow. Net profit is also increasing, thus Mikro Kapital Moldova shows well-being Operational Self-Sufficiency.
Even though our Portfolio Yield demonstrates growth, moreover Funding expenses, and Operational expenses, one would think that the net income must reach the planned level, however, it suffers in 2020 most because of the Covid-19 crisis and thus increasing of provision expenses.
For the year 2021, we plan to strengthen our company’s position in the top non-bank credit organizations for lending to micro and small businesses.
The company’s number of staff shall increase from current 61 employees to 71. At least one new branch will be added to the existing 8 branches at end of 2020.
Concerning the range of products, in the 2021 year, we do not plan radical changes. Rather the company’s products will be subject to adjustments in market conditions and increase of their efficiency. The key segment of the client portfolio will continue to be small entrepreneurs from the main fields of the country’s economy – Agriculture, Trade, and Services. In addition, a simplified analysis and scoring system for some products (small amounts) should contribute to efficiency.
In 2021, we will implement a CRM solution that will allow easier and more efficient management of the processes of identification and processing of credit applications, contacting customers, and their management, by the sales department.
As for the interest rates charged to our clients, although the degree of credit risk is higher against a background of pandemic crisis and drought in agriculture, Mikro Kapital Moldova will not lower the price of products offered to customers.
We aim to increase the activity on the sale of products through partners and in this sense, a separate department will be created which will be responsible only for developing the portfolio with partners.
In terms of funding, we shall add 1-2 new international creditors. The target for new loans received from existing and new lenders is estimated to be about €6-7 million.
Starting with this year, our company will receive an SDG rating (the first year 2020) from the Agents for Impact Sustainability Alignment Rating (AFISAR©) team. Overall and amongst other benefits, the AFISAR© tool should help our company to demonstrate its sustainability performance and attract impact capital, since sustainability performance is an increasingly important selection criterion for investment decisions, particularly for impact investors.
All of the above and other activities planned for the 2021 year and described further should help reach the targets of the business plan. Here are some key targets:
- A Gross loan portfolio increase by 28% (from 364.7 million to 469 million lei);
- Increase of the Total Assets from about 391 mln MDL (year-end 2020) to 481 million MDL by end of 2021;
- Reach a net income of about 22 mln MDL by end of the year (more by 13 million MDL at end of 2020);
- Decreasing of the PAR 30 + Restructuring from 10.39% to 6,5%;
- Maintaining PAR 30+ during the year below 3%.
Dinerito
CEO of Dinerito, Paul Bustos:
“2020 was a challenging year for the world as the Covid-19 pandemic presented new scenarios in relation to how we should exercise leadership and ways of working, where the intensive use of technology, connectivity and mobility have been and will be the fundamental axis in the development of companies.
Dinerito goes to very specific markets for the origination of credits, mainly in the public sectors of education and health. In Mexico, the health policy restricted access to both markets, closing the possibility of promoting our services in health centers, and in education having canceled face-to-face classes in schools.
Despite this, Dinerito’s sales force implemented face-to-face marketing strategies and through digital media was able to get closer to its target market and thereby maintain the value of the portfolio resulting in a growth of 4.7% in nominal terms.
The effort of the entire structure of the company allowed the deterioration of the asset to be no greater than 5% (NPL), and the collection levels exceeded 95% effectiveness.
On the other hand, the company presented accounting losses generated by the depreciation and volatility of the peso against the USD Dollar and the Euro.
This is because our main sources of funding are in those currencies, despite the fact that Dinerito has risk mitigation measures, currency hedging, cash policies. The accounting valuation of the liability in foreign currency increased the obligations, implicating an impact in the P&L of the company, in the estimated exchange loss (gain) account.
For 2021, Dinerito foresees an important recovery in the sale of credits, since the pandemic has left behind a growing need for financing. We believe that there will be a high demand for financial services over the year.
The vaccination campaign against Covid-19 reacts positively with the activation of the economy in Mexico, and therefore of the mobility of people. The Government has announced that face-to-face classes will resume in June 2021, which gives us an encouraging outlook to be able to originate with a large part of our target market.
Our growth expectation includes an increase in the portfolio of 20%, complemented by the launch of a product, obtaining net profits in the order of $10.2 MMXP, and growth of total assets in the order of $45 MMXP.”
SOS Credit
View SOS Credit’s Annual Report
Timofeev Yaroslav Andriyovich, SOS Credit CEO:
“Despite all the difficulties (decrease in economic activity and solvency of the population, devaluation of the national currency, etc.) caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, SOS Credit in 2020 was able not only to stay on the market and improve its position but also to significantly improve its performance efficiency. It should be noted that with an increase in the volume of loans issued by only 1.6% compared to 2019, the revenue increased by 32.5%, and EBITDA increased by 151.7%. The average annual net loan portfolio in 2020 grew by 14.4% compared to 2019. The ICR at the end of 2019 was 1.1, at the end of 2020 it was 2.1. The growth of the aforementioned indicators would have been even higher if not for the significant devaluation of the national currency UAH against the EUR.”
RapiCredit
View RapiCredit’s Annual Report
Daniel Alfredo Materón Osorio, a Legal Representative of Rapicredit:
“Like the rest of the world, in 2020, the Colombian economy faced one of the strongest shocks in its history, because of Covid-19. After a good performance in 2019, that led it to an outstanding growth rate of 3.3%, compared to 0.1% in Latin America and the Caribbean, Colombia was expected to achieve an economic growth close to 3.5% in 2020, however, at the end of the first quarter of 2020, it was necessary to face the factors that challenged the world economy and by extension the local one: the spread of Covid19 and the fall in international oil prices. Even though all countries were affected, the economic deterioration has behaved heterogeneously. Advanced economies show signs of a steeper decline than developing economies. Latin America is part of the group of economies with the greatest impact, with a fall of -8.1% forecast for 2020. In Colombia, the economic growth rate has behaved similarly, and according to DANE, the Colombian economy contracted 6.8%.
Rapicredit started 2020 with challenging commercial goals and with the expectation of a similar growth rate to that obtained in the 2018-2019 period, the results of the first quarter confirmed that the growth expectation and the dynamism achieved, made the numbers reflected in the initial budget. The number of originations in Q1/20 grew 45% compared to the same period of 2019, and the value of revenues increased by 77% compared to the same period of 2019. However, the country and Rapicredit were not oblivious to the global behavior and that is why at the beginning of the second quarter of 2020, the company decided to re-evaluate its decision algorithm and suspend origination to new clients, mainly due to the increase in unemployment rates in the country, mandatory quarantine decisions in the national territory and general uncertainty.
The above fact generates a direct impact on the company’s income and that is why in Q2/20 there is a decrease in income of 29% compared to 2019, in Q3/20 the income decreased by 25% compared to 2019. During the last quarter of 2020, the country begins to show signs of recovery of its macroeconomic indicators, confinements are decreasing, reactivation of the informal economy and restrictions on the free mobilization of people become more flexible, factors that benefit activity of the company, origination and therefore the revenues begin to recover and there is reinitiation of an increasing trend, with a 4% increase in Q4/20 compared to the same period of 2019. The year-to-year accumulated behavior depicted a 3% increase in origination and a 1% increase in income.
Because of the decrease in expected income, EBITDA also deteriorates comparatively against 2019. After initiating Q3 / 20 with the best income results and controlled expenses, EBITDA begins its monthly recovery.
One of the promises of value for Rapicredit clients is to have the possibility of making disbursements of approved credits in less than 24 hours, thus, in 2020 the payment release processes were modified in such a way that during the week it is possible to do it 5 times a day and on Saturday 3 times. Additionally, we started conversations with Efecty to expand our disbursement options.
The risk area played a decisive role in the results of 2020, by implementing additional control measures in the flow of loan placement and establishing a new decision model that would allow reducing the NPL indices, apart from launching weekly rescue campaigns and the definition of customer profiles for Rapiplazo. Regarding the end customer, in 2020 RapiCredit launched its new corporate image and its website, which doubled the number of users and visits to the page, created a blog that increased requests from organic channels by 41%, and reached agreements with new quality traffic acquisition channels.
In parallel, a differentiated tactical communication plan was also developed for new and recurring clients. The area of expertise migrated to a specialized provider that allowed to obtain better levels of service and customer satisfaction, the IVR was optimized improving the effectiveness of calls and internal communication channels were developed to provide feedback to all areas on the existing areas of opportunity. The deployment of the new portal guarantees a robust platform thought and designed to guarantee scalability according to the growing needs of the company.”
Revo Technologies
CEO of Revo Technologies, Timofey Shagun:
“Revo has continued its strong run of profitability, delivering its 10th consecutive quarterly profits and the best quarterly performance yet in Q1 2021. The company’s operating income doubled and net profits increased 10x YoY. Revo’s positive performance reflects a strong bounce to pre-Covid operating and risk performance and strong market sentiment. While traffic to online stores is still returning in Russia’s major cities, there is growing acceptance of Buy Now Pay Later and strong merchant interest to add Revo to online stores., which we expect will reinforce our growth in Q2-Q4 2021. Revo’s partnership mix continues to diversify, adding partners in education and online SMEs. In addition to the strong performance of our merchant business, our in-app advances are growing in popularity with double-digit growth. With the launch of the Mokka in-app virtual card, we are seeing growing engagement with our service. Key financial highlights of Q1 2021-Gross transaction revenue increased 18% vs. Q1 2020-PBT reached EUR 1,9 million, a 10x increase vs EUR 0,2 million in Q1 2020-Capital adequacy ratio (NMFK 1) is 18%, improved compared to 13% in Q1 2020 Unique customer base reached 7,6 million, users, up 82% vs. same period the prior year”.
Mikro Kapital (Romania, Uzbekistan, Russia)
View Mikro Kapital’s (Romania) Annual Report
View Mikro Kapital’s (Uzbekistan) Annual Report
View Mikro Kapital’s (Russia) Annual Report
Andrei Bostaca, CEO of Mikro Kapital Romania:
“As for 2020, despite all the difficulties generated by Covid-19 effects, we are proud to present a stable situation with an important growth in business. We managed to close the year-end almost perfectly in line with our expectations in terms of profitability, loan portfolio growth, and quality. 2020 was a stress test for all of us and we are more than satisfied with our results.”
Ravshan Soliev, CEO of Mikro Kapital Uzbekistan:
“2020 was the turnaround year for Mikro Leasing Uzbekistan. Despite Covid-19, we were able to increase our assets base by 362% from $3,2 million to $11,7 million. Adopted management strategy on the implementation of innovative new products and regional expansion led to such significant growth in 2021. High-margin products had a positive impact on the overall profitability of the company in 2020. Thus ROE exceeds 81%, and overall with a net profit of 2020 ($932 000), we have covered start-up losses of the company generated in 2018 – 2019 in the amount of $433 000. It should be noted that in line with the high profitability, we were able to keep good portfolio quality at the level PAR>30 less than 1%. Reached results in 2020 encourage us for the new achievements in 2021.”
Ravshan Soliev, CEO of Mikro Kapital Uzbekistan:
“2020 was the turnaround year for Mikro Leasing Uzbekistan. Despite Covid-19, we were able to increase our assets base by 362% from $3,2 million to $11,7 million. Adopted management strategy on the implementation of innovative new products and regional expansion led to such significant growth in 2021. High-margin products had a positive impact on the overall profitability of the company in 2020. Thus ROE exceeds 81%, and overall with a net profit of 2020 ($932 000), we have covered start-up losses of the company generated in 2018 – 2019 in the amount of $433 000. It should be noted that in line with the high profitability, we were able to keep good portfolio quality at the level PAR>30 less than 1%. Reached results in 2020 encourage us for the new achievements in 2021.”
Dana Rupiah
View Dana Rupiah’s Annual Report
CEO of Dana Rupiah, Mr Li Lister:
“Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many lending companies in Jakarta have faced difficulties and suffered from losses. But Dana Rupiah is lucky. Thanks to its extensive experiences in risk control and customers with the best credit accumulated since its inception in 2017, Dana Rupiah still generates a certain amount of profits in 2020, which is indeed a miracle in the market.
Having seen that the portfolio has doubled in Q1 2021, we are optimistic that the business will recover to the pre-pandemic level very soon, probably before the end of this year.”
Mikro Kapital (Belarus)
View Mikro Kapital’s (Belarus) Annual Report
Nikita Chebotar, CEO of Mikro Kapital Belarus (Mikro Leasing LLC):
“2020 was a tough year for our company. We faced a lot of challenges, but we managed to cope with them and achieve good results.
The main indicators that are not in line with our expectations for 2020 are the amount of new business and total portfolio amount due to external factors that include Covid-19 and the political situation in Belarus. Despite the decline of the mentioned indicators, we managed to maintain the amount of the profit set due to a flexible pricing policy and deep understanding of the market by our management. Also, there was no decrease in the overall quality of our company’s portfolio.
We expect that in 2021, the overall situation will stabilize and people will realize delayed demand for lease services since 2020. We plan to simplify the terms of leasing issue and launch the new products in 2021 to further increase the pool of our clients.”
ESTO
Mikk Metsa, CEO and Co-founder of ESTO:
“2020 was an extraordinary year by any measure. It was a year of a global pandemic, a global recession, and unprecedented government actions. Watching events unfold throughout the year, we were keenly focused on what we, as a company, could do to serve. To our retail partners, this has been far from an easy year, and I am impressed by your resilience and immense adaptability, and what we have been able to accomplish together in challenging circumstances.
The last year has seen consumer expectations of how they bank, pay, and shop grows, despite the limiting factors of the pandemic. More and more people are shopping online, across demographics, and in new retail sectors, gaining trust and confidence in the online marketplace. This has been a good trend for ESTO because we are building the next-generation platform for digital and mobile-first commerce. At ESTO our goal is to facilitate simple, secure payments across devices, deliver flexibility with payment options across platforms for our clients and support all aspects of online, mobile, and in-store payments for our partners. ESTO’s two-sided platform drives growth and creates great competitive advantages for our partners, which is why ESTO continues to grow rapidly, adding a record number of new merchants to our already strong merchant partnership network. The growth is driven by ESTO’s unique offering to both merchants and consumers, enabling a smarter way to shop and pay.
We grew market share across our businesses and continued to make significant investments in products, people, and technology, all while maintaining credit discipline and a strong balance sheet. The revenue for the year was ca. €7.5 million, growing over 3x compared to the year before. Our strong revenue growth, combined with disciplined expense management enabled us to earn €1.6 million in net profit. We ended the year with a record number of active clients and partners.
We started our business with our core pay-over-time solution at checkout and have since continued to innovate and expand our product suite. And this is just the beginning. We offer merchants highly effective commerce solutions that enhance demand generation and customer acquisition. Our solutions empower merchants to more efficiently promote and sell their products, optimize their customer acquisition strategies, and drive incremental sales. Our flexible payment solutions allow merchants to solve affordability for their customers, providing a revenue accelerator while avoiding discounting and other expensive marketing and promotional channels.
Our business benefits from broader trends in technology, retail, finance, and e-commerce, but ultimately, the basis of our success is our people. They are the ones who serve our customers, build the technology, make strategic decisions, manage the risks, determine our investments, and drive innovation. Having a great team of people – with guts and brains and enormous capabilities who can navigate personally challenging circumstances while dedicating themselves to professional excellence – is what ensures our prosperity, now and in the future.”
Ecofinance
View Ecofinance’s Annual Report
Leonid Dulenkov, CEO of Ecofinance:
“2020 proved to be a difficult challenge for both the lending market and the financial market as a whole. On the other hand, it allowed us to work out several bottlenecks, to optimize processes, costs, and products, which certainly had a beneficial impact upon our development strategy and market position. The recovery from this challenging period turned out to be slightly longer than we had expected, but it allowed us to form a positive portfolio with the necessary balance between short-term loans and medium-term loans, to release several unique solutions that give our customers the ability to select loans based upon their specific needs and goals, as well as significantly improve our collections operations. Beginning with the 4th quarter of 2020, we can see clear results of what the Ecofinance team has done in order to maximize profits. Moreover, at the end of 2020, we have successfully passed an audit by the Central Bank of Russia, which once again confirms the sound legal and regulatory foundation upon which we operate.
Podemos Progresar
View Podemos Progresar’s Annual Report
Fernando Orta, CEO of Podemos Progresar:
“Although 2020 proved to be a challenging year for all our industry due to the COVID pandemic, we are extremely proud of our 2020 financial results where despite all the challenges we managed to grow our portfolio by more than 50% while maintaining portfolio at risk levels below our historical 3% levels.
We are very grateful for all the effort that our team put into achieving these results, while also proving the strength of our business model and operation. Due to our strong 2020 results, we are looking to increase our growth into 2021.
We are excited to work with Mintos, one of the leading investment platforms in the region. We look forward to continuing with our purpose of inspiring and empowering our partners, our members, and society to become the best version of themselves. I’m convinced that alongside the Mintos team, we will meet the goal to increase even further our positive impact on Mexican women by providing the services they want and deserve: the right credit, at the right time, with the right costs, and the right benefits and service.”
Credius (Romania)
Andrei Buzgan, CEO of Credius:
“2020 was unusual, to say the least. A pandemic was nowhere on the list of likely global risks that CEOs worried about. Despite its impact on the overall business activity and operational flows, consumer income as well as regulatory challenges and restrictive measures introduced by governments across the continent, Romania was relatively mildly affected compared to its EU member state neighbors. Credius was one of the first financial companies in the market that reacted promptly in this new context of crisis management, focusing on its longer-term strategies of reshaping its business model to meet the “New Normal” as well as the “New Opportunity”. We are the first and only financial company in Romania that implemented an automated KYC & onboarding flow for its customers and has deployed an end-to-end remote lending capability.
In 2020, our global revenues increased to €13.2M from €12.3M reported in 2019, an increase of 7.1% versus the prior year. At the same time, EBITDA increased to €3.5M in 2020 from €2.8M in the prior reporting year, an increase of 24.1%. Due to the comprehensive operational restructuring program, the Company managed to curb its total operating expenses by 23.6%, a decrease in excess of €1M on a year-over-year basis.
The transformation efforts undertaken allowed the Company to secure a 56.5% year-over-year increase in its net earnings to €1.7M for the year ended December 31, 2020, from €1.1M for the prior year. In March 2021, consistent with its profitability and growth strategy, the Company instructed its first dividend distribution amounting to €1.05M.”
Placet (Estonia, Lithunia)
View Placet’s (Estonia) Annual Report
View Placet’s (Lithuania) Annual Report
Gennadi Krotov, CEO of Placet:
“The past 2020 turned out to be stressful for the whole world and a kind of test; someone overcame challenges and strengthened their positions, while others overrated their strength and suffered losses. Our company has always adhered to the conservative position of responsible lending, and therefore we were able to significantly strengthen our position and add to our portfolio in the past year. The improvements we made to the scoring model at the beginning of the year made it possible to grant loans in a more effective manner, and with the growing portfolio, we reduced the level of NPLs. We also launched the app for iOS/Andriod much anticipated by our clients to make the maintenance of credit accounts more client-friendly, and in the fall real credit cards with a convenient partner program of loyalty and discounts were added to our lines of credit. In 2021, the company continues to expand the range of services and develop new credit facilities.”
Swell
Ernesto Vela Berrondo, CEO of Swell:
“2020 was a very challenging year for Swell. We suffered the pandemic, Mexico was one of the countries in the world with more deaths per 100,000 habitants, an economic downfall, and no government support for small enterprises. This was a huge challenge that Swell as a team, answered with great professionalism and to some extent, with success. Our 2020 financials were what we expected, lost shareholders value in 23 million pesos (revised by BDO). Depreciation led to the losses, and on the bright side, Swell managed to have MXN 6.5 million of positive cash flow. With high liquidity, and funding open, Swell managed to close the last quarter much better than expected.
2021 started with a great recovery. We had positive results, showing a complete turnaround from 2020. Our focus was on lowering costs (we are well on target to reach our 33% reduction in operating costs) and to originate more loans with a very responsible risk appetite.
July 6th was the election for Governor (some states in Mexico not all), but all of our lower and upper house. Due to the magnitude of this election, many small businesses kept a very low-risk appetite, and therefore, the investment in the 2nd Quarter has been very low vs historic investments. We have seen a significant application for loans growth. We have seen 30% increments, and it’s still early to call it a trend. But there is more appetite for new investments by small and big businesses in Mexico.
We see a much better 2nd half of the year, maintaining our discipline in our administrative costs, and building our sales team to finish strong in 2021. These two key factors should give us a return to positive results. We are on our way to reaching our goals.”
Everest Finanse
View Everest Finanse’s Annual Report
Andrzej Dworczak, Vice-President of the Management Board of Everest Finanse:
Perhaps, it’s been the most difficult year for the Polish lending industry ever. Lowering the limit for non-interest loan costs, introduced in Poland for the duration of the pandemic, has made some Polish loan companies suspend lending. We haven’t considered such an option. Since the beginning of our operations, our investors have been receiving regular weekly payments with no delays. This has resulted in the growing investment value. This trust is appreciated.
We closed 2020 with good results: Everest Group’s EBITDA reached PLN 41.0 million (14.5%), while its equity accounted for 47.4% of the financing sources for the operations.
In 2020, the value of installments collected from customers amounted to a total of PLN 368.08 million. There was a decrease of 2% when compared to the previous year. This decrease resulted from the low volume of loan sales in the initial period of the Covid-19 pandemic, not from deteriorated portfolio quality.
We have been recovering from the sales losses at a good pace, April and May 2020 were particularly difficult for us, while in the last quarter of 2020 we acquired 9% more new customers than during the same period in 2019.
Zbyszko Pawlak, President of the Management Board of Everest Finanse:
Not only has the COVID-19 pandemic shocked the financial market, but also affected many aspects of social life. During the pandemic period, the development of the e-commerce market has accelerated by several years, many daily activities have been moved online. We have carefully observed how this dynamic digitization of Polish citizens affects our sales model. Today, we are sure that, when engaged in finance-related activities, Polish consumers still prefer personal contact with a representative of a financial institution. Our observations were confirmed by the study conducted in March-April 2021 by the Polish Federation of Consumers and the Foundation for Financial Market Development that indicates that the youngest generation also chooses personal contact with a financial advisor. Despite living in the digital world, generation Z still prefers to handle financial matters in the traditional form. Therefore, EVEREST FINANSE S.A. is continually focused on traditional, personal contact with clients, which enables the most reliable assessment of the consumer’s creditworthiness. We are thus able to lend more safely than our online-only competitors.
We are going to take advantage of the digital boom to sell even more and faster – through the application we are working on. We hope that it will also help us to acquire customers of the loan companies that have ceased their operations.
The pandemic period has been a combat test, primarily for our field employees. They’ve passed it with flying colors: we’ve maintained a team of almost 1,500 employees who visit our clients every day. We are very grateful for this.
