Jau vairāk nekā mēnesi pieredzam nestabilos un ļoti dinamiskos tirgus apstākļus, kad daudzas valstis atrodas ārkārtas stāvoklī, aizdevēji dalās ar saviem finanšu rezultātiem 2019. gadā un 2020. gada pirmajā ceturksnī, kā arī ar komentāriem par to, kā situācija attīstījusies pēdējā mēneša laikā. Šis bloga ieraksts ir iepriekšējo aizdevēju paziņojumu turpinājums.
Ātrākai saziņai ar investoriem mēs publicēsim paziņojumus to oriģinālvalodā – angļu.
Mēs regulāri pievienosim jaunus paziņojumus, ieskatieties, lai iegūtu sīkāku informāciju.
Paziņojumi:
1. April 27, IuteCredit: “We delivered good results in 2019 and all our obligations are met” (updated)
1.1. May 7, IuteCredit: Pleasing Q1 2020 results and a financial report
2. ID Finance: Reporting record operating income for its Spanish operations in 2019 and maintaining a strong position to face the challenges of 2020
3. An update from Everest Finanse
4. Mogo Finance records another strong quarter; shares earnings call recording and invites to submit questions for the Mogo team
5. Message and Q1 2020 results from Cash4UNow (Novaloans)
6. Kviku shares financial highlights based on 2019 audit
7. Pinjam Yuk comments on the current situation in Indonesia
8. Q&A with Wowwo’s Chief Financial Officer, Kurt Akyuz
9. Letter regarding Covid-19 from JULO team
10. Announcement from TASCREDIT’s CEO, Dulat Tastekeyev
11. Dineo’s letter to fellow investors
12. Message from Lime-Zaim’s CEO, Alexey Nefedov
13. Update from Finclusion (GetBucks)
14. Letter from Melivesa’s (E-Cash) CEO, Gia Tarieladze
15. Update from Fireof team
16. DelfinGroup publishes consolidated financial results of 2019 and Q1 2020
17. Sun Finance reaches a record quarterly revenue of € 33 million
18. A message to Mintos investors from StikCredit team
19. Dziesiątka shares an update on the COVID-19 situation
20. DoZarplati shares comments on its financial results and the pandemic in Russia
21. ESTO will launch an automatic buyback for all loans extended due to the COVID-19 pandemic
22. Revo, the most recent lending company to join Mintos, shows strong performance in first quarter 2020
April 23, 2020
IuteCredit: “We delivered good results in 2019 and all our obligations are met”
Tarmo Sild, CEO: “IuteCredit’s business is to offer an extraordinary experience to its customers, to serve its debt and equity investors, and to offer a challenging job with self-satisfaction to its team members
We delivered good results in 2019 in all our fronts, with a winning mix of technology, a team of 350+ people, and 100+ million EUR worth assets. Specifically, with regard to Mintos investors, I would like to state two facts.
First, all our obligations to our creditors have been met and everyone has earned interest with IuteCredit throughout our history since 2008, inclusive 2019 and the first quarter of 2020.
Second, no investor has pending payments or bad debt with IuteCredit, because we pay on time what is due. That includes money invested into Kosovo loans, which we have repaid to Mintos investors as a Group according to the loans’ schedules, regardless of the legally contested and non-transparent situation in Kosovo. We speak of real money, which you can check on your account statement and which is effectively disposable. IuteCredit is built on real money, from real money, for real money.
As for 2020, we continue doing business according to the general understanding that we shared in Mintos blog on March 19 and on April 9. Placing new loans on the Mintos Primary Market during Q2 is very unlikely as we are executing disciplined contraction of balance sheet and cash in. The markets have not stabilized and we do not expect them to stabilize any time soon.
We will continue investor reporting according to the previously announced schedule and Frankfurt Stock Exchange’s rules. Q1 2020 financial results are visible below.”
View IuteCredit’s 2019 financial report
May 7, IuteCredit: Pleasing Q1 2020 results and a financial report
Tarmo Sild, CEO of IuteCredit: “The Q1 2020 results were pleasing and almost in line with our targets. IuteCredit Group grew its loan portfolio at strong annual percentage rates, attracted more customers, and the customers maintained good repayment discipline. All in all, that resulted in a net profit of 1,5 million EUR. Adjusted for exchange rate losses, our net result would have been 3,7 million EUR. Nevertheless, the 3M report is only a glance into the rear mirror. As a result of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the strategic and operational approach for the second quarter of 2020 and beyond is much more relevant.
Cashflow now has a decisive function to steering, for example, the volume and price of loans issued and our operating expenses. In other words, new loans to customers can be originated only to the extent where we have met the loan repayment targets (cash in targets) and operating expense cut targets first.
Group cash position reached close to 9 million EUR (8% of the balance sheet) by the end of March and the cash share of the balance sheet is expected to exceed 12% by end of Q2. This is a historically unprecedented level that reflects the actions above.
In an operationally extremely dynamic environment, the primary objective of IuteCredit Management is to maintain both equity and debt capital and to guarantee interest payments to debt capital investors. To reach that objective, the company must at minimum break-even during 2020. At the same time, we collect and analyze extensive data to set IuteCredit for the time after COVID-19. We are convinced that the demand for consumer credit, backed by individual earnings, will again grow in the future. The current challenge is to build a bridge from today to this future. IuteCredit is well-armed to both mitigate the financial impact of COVID-19 and grow in the new post-crisis normality.
Taking into account the unprecedented challenges for society as a whole in connection with the unpredictable development of the COVID 19 pandemic, we are convinced, with commercial prudence, that we will not be able to achieve our initial targets for 2020 as a whole. The economic impact of the pandemic cannot be determined in detail or reliably quantified at present, so we expect IuteCredit results to be below those of the previous year,” said Tarmo Sild, Group CEO of IuteCredit.”
View IuteCredit’s Q1 2020 financial report
April 23, 2020
ID Finance: Reporting record operating income for its Spanish operations in 2019 and maintaining a strong position to face the challenges of 2020
ID Finance, the global provider of online financial services, announces audited IFRS results for its Spanish operations for the financial year ended 31 December 2019. The same results are also found on the ID Finance Mintos page.
ID Finance Spain had a very strong 2019, more than doubling revenue and assets. We profitably scaled operations, with operating profit increasing 420% to €6.5 million. As a result, the balance sheet significantly strengthened with an equity to assets ratio of 16.4% at 31 December 2019.
Key financial highlights of 2019
• Revenue up 111% to €48.5 million
• Operating income up 420% to €6.5 million
• Net profit after tax €3.3 million
• Assets up 123% to €33.0 million
• Equity of €5.4 million
These results are due to a continued positive response from our customers to the convenience of our product. The quality of the product is reflected in a high Net Promoter Score of 63 compared to a consumer finance average of 32ⁱ.
Because of our client-centric approach, Moneyman has become a top alternative finance brand in Spain with 1.1 million registered users and a very high level of repeat business. Growing economies of scale with tight cost control are driving an increase in profitability. Combined with the parent company’s equity raise in 2019, ID Finance Spain is in sound financial strength.
“I am happy to report that we had a great year, ending 2019 on a high note. We achieved a significant milestone in revenues of €48.5 million for the year. After becoming profitable in 2018, earnings grew strongly in 2019. These excellent results were driven by the convenient and affordable financial products we offer to our customers, and by our talented team of dedicated professionals. In 2020, we’ll continue to expand our financial services” – said Boris Batine, Co-founder and CEO at ID Finance.
Outlook for 2020
COVID-19 is creating a rapidly evolving and uncertain situation. In terms of business continuity, we responded very quickly. All of our processes, products and customer support were invented to work continuously online. We continue to service our customers 24/7.
Being fully digital, our customers can interact with us online from home. With many people restricted from leaving their house, we continue to experience strong demand for our products. Our proprietary IT infrastructure allows us to adjust risk parameters and scoring algorithms very quickly to changing circumstances. This is a competitive advantage.
We have significant capital reserves and will continue to diversify our funding sources by expanding our direct lending program with credit funds and family offices, and a possible public bond issue. Thus we are well prepared and confident.
Moreover, across the countries where we have a presence, in cooperation with hospitals and social organizations, we are supporting people hospitalized and confined by COVID- 19. Specific projects include providing food and medicine to the isolated and elderly, and providing tablet devices so that they can stay in contact with their family.
“The company has been working as a team for over five years, and we have gone through several storms while continuing to conduct business. We have always been and remain the leaders of our industry, a stable company with large capital and a liquidity cushion. Our employees are not virologists and epidemiologists; we cannot predict how the pandemic will progress and when it will end. But as professionals in the finance area, we guarantee that ID Finance will thrive even in this challenging environment” – said Boris Batine, Co-founder and CEO at ID Finance.
i Source: ID Finance and delighted.com/nps-benchmarks
April 23, 2020
An update from Everest Finanse
In response to the pandemic, the Polish Parliament has introduced solutions aimed at reducing the effects of the crisis. Among other things, they consist of regulations for the loan market which cut down the APR limits from 1 April 2020 to 8 March 2021. Many lending companies operating in the Polish market were not ready for such a situation and had to suspend (temporarily or indefinitely) the issuance of new loans. “We estimate that the issuance of loans in Poland, due to the new regulations, will decrease by about a half,” says Zbyszko Pawlak, CEO of Everest Finanse.
Also, as part of actions to mitigate the effects of the crisis, polish banks and lending companies have introduced the so-called “credit holidays”. In the case of Everest Finanse (under its legal entity – Bocian Pozyczki), they allow clients (who lost income due to the pandemic and had previously paid their liabilities on time) to pay 50% of the instalments in a period of 8 weeks. These discounts mentioned above do not affect settlements with investors. Everest Finanse pays full instalments to Mintos with full interest, including clients who are on “credit holidays”.
Everest Finanse has a network of 1500 agents and employs over 2000 people. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the company has been sustaining full employment and customer service while following safety rules. The company provides its agents with additional funds on a weekly basis for the purchase of security measures. It has also launched the possibility of online payments of the instalment (payment card, bank transfer, BLIK, Google Pay). With online payments, customers can receive assistance by speaking with an agent via phone. However, most of the clients are unbanked and do not have or cannot use electronic banking instruments. For clients, who choose the traditional form of service and collection of instalments at home, Everest Finanse continues to provide it while maintaining new safety standards in personal contacts.
Last year, when the Polish Prime Minister started considering introducing new limits of costs for loans, the company started looking for new sources of income. It was partially successful. As a result, today, the company, Bocian Pozyczki, draws 30% of income from non-lending activities – insurance sales and consumer products (e. g. perfume, household goods).
Everest Finanse, which specialised in long-term financing, has significantly shortened the loan term offering. Obviously, the company selects clients carefully, choosing the most reliable ones in terms of potential repayments.
Final conclusion
Everest Finanse is still a reliable and financially stable lending company. Despite the crisis, the company has secured the current customer service, new sales, and funds necessary to conduct further business.
Moreover, Everest Finanse has increased the frequency of settlements with Mintos to two per week. This means that if you invest in Everest Finanse’s loans, you will receive your returns early.
View Everest Finanse’s 2019 financial report
April 24, 2020
Mogo Finance records another strong quarter; shares earnings call recording and invites to submit questions for the Mogo team
This week, the biggest secured lender on Mintos and leading international car loans based finance provider Mogo Finance has published its 2020 Q1 results. Company achieved yet another quarter of strong profitability growth in terms of EBITDA despite unprecedented headwinds of global COVID-19 pandemic. Below you can find Mogo key operational and financial highlights:
– A continuous rapid increase in quarterly EBITDA by 39.7%, reaching EUR 8.8 million (3M 2019: EUR 6.3 million)
– Interest and similar income, including income from used car rent up strongly by 29.8% to EUR 22.2 million (3M 2019: EUR 17.1 million)
– Net profit before FX for the period has remained unchanged at EUR 1.2 million (3M 2019: EUR 1.2 million) despite COVID-19 caused headwinds
– Mogo Finance shareholders have injected an additional EUR 5 million of capital during Q1 2020. This marks the total new capital of EUR 10 million injected into the Mogo group since September 2019.
– Growth in total equity by 9.7% to EUR 31.6 million (31.12.2019: EUR 28.8 million)
– In order to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 we have introduced a number of cost-cutting initiatives, which will result in 50%+ temporary admin cost saving during Q2 and c.20% permanent cost reduction
– We are focusing on cash conservation and as a result of significantly optimized issuances, our portfolio is currently generating c. EUR 1.5 million of cash a week
Mogo Finance CEO, Modestas Sudnius: “Looking back at the first-quarter results, we need to split this period into 2 parts – pre and post COVID-19. During January, February and the first half of March, we were executing our yearly strategy outstandingly and beating the budgeted figures with very strong EBITDA, portfolio and profitability growth. However, during the second part of March, we had to change our strategy and shift our focus completely. I am very grateful to our team who managed to accomplish significant changes in core processes across the organisation from IT to debt collection just in two weeks.
Maintaining a safe working environment for our employees as well as providing the best possible service to customers is our top priority during the virus outbreak. Mogo is following local healthcare instructions and taking extra steps to make sure that all employees could work from home.
Understanding the current reality and economic effect on many of our existing customers, Mogo will be offering flexible restructuring solutions so that our clients could overcome short-term financial turbulence and continue using Mogo services. When it comes to newest issuances, in countries which are not in full lock-down, Mogo continues offering its services to the best client segments with significantly stricter underwriting procedures to be able to follow responsible lending requirements.
Without a doubt, the upcoming period will be challenging for the whole industry as well as Mogo group. We have already performed necessary actions to reduce our cost base significantly, strengthen our equity and will continue looking for efficiencies and potential optimisation across our operations. We strongly believe that our prudent secured product, strong processes as well as a clear focus on liquidity and cash generation will allow us to limit negative effects caused by COVID-19. This will allow us to strengthen our position as a leading international used car lender once the situation in the world stabilises.“
Mogo finance appreciates Mintos investors’ trust and interest in the company. Mogo will continue providing full transparency to investors through regular updates on its financials (at least once per quarter), limiting pending payments to 0 (current level – 0) and reacting to any COVID-19 related issues immediately as well as sharing this information with investors.
Earlier in April 2020 Mogo Finance team performed its regular earnings call with bondholders of Mogo group and would like to share it for investors on Mintos – here is a video recording of the finance performance presentation followed by questions on behalf of bondholders and Mogo answers.
Ask your question to Mogo
Similarly, Mogo invites investors on Mintos to share their questions here https://app.sli.do/event/p56qvy7b – write your own question or vote for an existing one. Mogo team will answer the top ten most voted questions. Please submit your questions until Sunday, end of the day, for Mogo to be able to provide answers during next week.
April 28, 2020
Message and Q1 2020 results from Cash4UNow (Novaloans)
Marcus Green: “I am pleased to report that we had a very satisfactory start to 2020. Total income for the first quarter grew by 61% to £1,804,175 from the same period of 2019 with gross profit increasing by 53% to £1.3m.
However, the unique challenge posed by the Covid-19 epidemic requires the company to adopt an even more cautious approach to lending until the Government eases the current restrictions and the country can begin to resume its usual economic activities. We are therefore very confident that because of our core belief in the values of economic prudence and financial responsibility, Novaloans is well placed to weather the current storm.
Investors will be aware that Novaloans has never failed to meet its responsibilities to Mintos investors and is in a secure financial position to continue to do so. Investors should, therefore, be confident that loans made by Novaloans continue to be a safe and attractive investment proposition.”
UK Government support is maintaining personal and business liquidity
The enormous financial support provided by the UK’s central Government to support both businesses and their employees has helped reduce many of the possible repercussions of the crisis. Temporarily laid-off workers are receiving 80% of their normal wages with many companies topping-up the final 20%, resulting in no reduction of household income. Remember, Cash4UNow always adheres to strict policies that ensure we only lend to individuals with a proven, regular income. Our customer base has a high percentage of workers in offices, health and education sectors.
Businesses are also benefiting with the provision of zero-interest loans for 12 months provided through officially assigned banks. In addition, there are VAT deferments and a range of other financial easements. These measures will help keep organisations viable and their employees earning during the shutdown period so they are ready to resume normal trading when we emerge from the pandemic.
Furthermore, anecdotal evidence suggests because of the personal lock-down, much household expenditure has been curtailed: e.g. travel, leisure, hospitality and general consumer expenditure. This means many individuals’ financial positions may have been maintained rather than reduced, during this enforced period of isolation.
Marcus Green
Director
Cash4UNow
View Novaloans unaudited financial statement
April 29, 2020
Kviku shares financial highlights based on 2019 audit
– 1.5x year-on-year growth of volume of issued loans (€ 30 million)
– Net loan portfolio after reserves more than doubled to € 23 million
– Revenue almost tripled to € 29 million with 20% accounting for non-interest risk-free revenue (insurance products and card-to-card transfers)
– Record high income of € 1.4 million
– Strong position in country rankings – #1 in POS loans and #6 in installment loans by portfolio size (Top-1 among Russian lending companies on Mintos)
Nikita Lomakin, CEO of Kviku: “Solid financial performance in 2019, together with funding diversification, allowed us to achieve a cash cushion of over € 2 million. We expect the Q1 numbers to be strong (reviewed accounts to be issued in May) and look forward to remaining profitable in the second half of 2020 and continuing to service all our liabilities with current and new investors in a timely manner.”
April 29, 2020
Pinjam Yuk comments on the current situation in Indonesia
Generally speaking, we (Pinjam Yuk) have to admit that the outbreak of Covid-19 worldwide and in Indonesia indeed has exerted a negative influence on our lending business, in the following aspects:
1) OJK (Indonesian financial regulator) has advised financial institutions to spare no effort to proceed with loan restructuring to mitigate the burden on borrowers, thus, our management team has decided to control the approval rate of loan applications coming from both new borrowers and repeat borrowers (in fact, we have almost shut down loan disbursement to new borrowers) to avoid credit risks in the short future. Starting from the end of March 2020, daily loans disbursed are only 10% to 20% of daily loans disbursed before the outbreak of the pandemic. All of the above leads to the current situation in which our loan portfolio has almost been halved.
2) Due to general economic downturn, some of our borrowers (such as drivers, small and medium merchants, etc) cannot go on with normal work but stay at home, meaning that the most important sources of their daily income might be jeopardized, plus the loan restructuring order issued by OJK, we have been observing obvious uplift in delinquency ratio, that is why we book much more provisions than in normal cases, leading to even negative net profit for the loan originator, which is rare ever since we started the business in 2017.
3) Covid-19 has been defined as a worldwide pandemic by the World Health Organization, so the influence is also global. As a country whose economy relies on oil, which is fragile during a crisis, Indonesia adjusted lower forecast growth of GDP, resulting in that Indonesian Rupiah has depreciated a lot, 20%+, against US dollars. We must take care of that because a majority of funding sources are in USD and Euros (including Mintos) in order not to bear losses due to foreign currency exchange.
There is good news, too
Good news is that we have enough cash in the account at this moment, due to the dramatic decrease of the loan disbursement and still positive net cash flow from investors, including highly wealthy individuals.
CEO of Pinjam Yuk, Leo Liu: “Due to the outbreak of the pandemic, credit risk has been increasing considerably. Each player, including top Fintech lenders in Indonesia, has controlled a lot the disbursement of loans, a shrinkage of 50% would be considered as a normal case in this period. As a peer to peer platform which mainly facilitates cash loans, Pinjam Yuk has controlled even further the lending business to avoid risks – now we only facilitate loans to premium quality clients. We will maintain this strategy in the short term and observe on a daily basis how the situation will evolve and adjust our rules correspondingly.
We firmly believe that things will be back to normal very quickly after the virus is controlled because the country needs to stimulate the economy after being paralysed for a while, and people need income to live by. Our lending will recover soon considering that we have accumulated several hundred thousand ending credit borrowers and will enlarge our loan sizes even more.”
View Pinjam Yuk’s financial report
April 30, 2020
A with Wowwo’s Chief Financial Officer, Kurt Akyuz
During the COVID-19 crisis, Wowwo has not only taken steps to safeguard the health of its employees, but also the health of its company, too. Thanks to strong liquidity and financials, backing from its multinational parent company, and support from the Turkish government through various loans, grants and aid packages for the economy as a whole, Wowwo is well-positioned to weather the storm during this period of economic pressure.
We spoke to Wowwo’s CFO, Kurt Akyüz, to hear his insights around why the business should do well into the future.
Mintos: Can you tell us a bit about Wowwo?
Kurt Akyüz: “Wowwo was established in 2016 and focuses on buying and selling second-hand cars with direct financing to consumers in Turkey. Our disruptive business model is built around a high demand for quality second-hand cars in the Turkish market from individuals who do not meet the criteria for traditional auto loans.
“Wowwo is technologically forward, meaning the business can run with no stock, just by leveraging the inventories of dealerships. We’ve invested heavily in IT infrastructure, Enterprise Resource Planning software, and even developed our own cohesive platform that manages the whole business process –from customer inquiries to sales contract management and financial data reporting. Our platform is also integrated with government and credit databases to receive current information about customers and vehicles, thus managing real-time risk.
“Today, we have over 130 employees, 16 000 available vehicles, 15 showrooms and over 2 000 member dealerships in 54 cities across the country.”
What sets Wowwo apart from the competition?
“Everyone has an opportunity to be a car owner through Wowwo. Our fast and intelligent data-driven credit assessment grants a different risk profile in comparison to “traditional” banks and leasing companies. On top of this, we mitigate our risk by securing a lien against the car and offering a buy-back option for customers who fall behind on their payments. We try to work with the customer in periods that are challenging for them.”
In your view, why should investors invest in Wowwo loans?
“We’re a lending company who have been given a “B” rating by Mintos and we also pledge a buyback guarantee. Also, Wowwo is well-capitalized with strong financials, as part of a strong, second-generation, multi-national and multi-investment company, covering a spectrum of industries that have been in business since 1948.
“We’re able to offer investors high returns with relatively low risk because our loans are secured by title liens on the vehicles sold. We also collect an average 36% upfront payment on all vehicle sales, meaning that we have cash collateral as well as the lien on the vehicle sold. Currently, the total value of our collateral is more than three times the total value of outstanding loans, and this is because we do not remove the collateral lien until the loan is fully paid off. Furthermore, all vehicles are fully insured with Wowwo as the beneficiary, meaning that all money can be fully recovered in case of theft or if the vehicle is written-off.
In the event that the customer is unable to pay, Wowwo will repossess the vehicle and recover the initial loan amount along with interest. This ensures full security for investors .”
Are there plans to upscale business in Turkey, or expand into other countries?
“The demand for vehicles in Turkey is high and although we do intend to grow internationally, we still have a lot of opportunity for growth in the local market for now. We plan to leverage this by diversifying our product offering to other segments such as commercial and heavy-duty vehicles. We also started to trial the luxury car sector and the results were positive, which validates that we do offer a lot of value to the customer outside traditional financing options.”
How has Wowwo performed since 2019?
“There have been many political and economic challenges in Turkey, particularly in the last 18 months, but this has only strengthened our business. Banks have become extremely cautious and consumers are limited by their options. Wowwo joined Mintos in November 2019, and increased its financing portfolio to keep up with demand. We are looking forward to increasing our business with Mintos in 2020.”
How is Wowwo regulated?
“We are regularly audited by BDDK – the Banking Regulation and Supervision Authority of Turkey. Currently, it is not mandatory for Wowwo to be licensed as a Bank or Financial Institution and BDDK periodically checks to see if there are any changes in our procedures. We are also closely bound by the Consumer Trade Act and our procedures are aligned with their guiding principles.
“We also adhere to the standards of IMKB, the Turkish Board of Exchange for Publicly Traded Companies, because Wowwo is 50% owned by a publicly-traded investment company. Wowwo financials are audited and reported to the exchange by a board-certified accounting firm (Baker Tilly) on a regular basis.
“Overall, our investors are very important to us and we hope that together we will ride out this turbulent period in our world’s history.”
To this end, we’ve included a short investment summary and updated financials on Wowwo’s dedicated Mintos page. The company’s Q1 2020 results are to be finalized in a couple of weeks time, and then will be shared with investors on Mintos.
May 6, 2020
Letter regarding Covid-19 from JULO team
“Dear Investors, we hope you and your loved ones are all keeping safe and well.
At JULO, we have responded swiftly to the changes in the marketplace. Given our healthy balance sheet and low forex exposure, we feel prepared to weather the storm reaching Indonesia. As a company, we have tightened our overall operations extensively to ensure that JULO will come out of this economic downturn stronger and ready to capture the market. Our core focus is our Collections and Recovery practice, through unlocking greater agent productivity, better refinancing options and customer incentives to motivate repayment. Additionally, select initiatives that we have taken include instituting our business continuity plan, operational cost management, payroll rationalization and underwriting optimization.
Our track record (with Mintos and others) has been consistently strong, and we have every intention of keeping it that way. We will continue to work with our investors to increase financial inclusion across Indonesia, as one of the only digital lenders servicing all 34 provinces in the country (and offering the lowest interest rates). As we await the storm to pass, we continue to invest in building our Machine Learning technologies which differentiate ourselves in the marketplace and, more importantly, enable us to better serve our customers. We look forward to when the sun shines again soon.”
JULO team
May 6, 2020
Announcement from TASCREDIT’s CEO, Dulat Tastekeyev
“Today, our company is taking all crisis prevention actions to improve financial performance and increase the confidence of our investors. Since the quarantine was introduced in the Republic of Kazakhstan, the government issued a decree on granting a deferment on all available loans for individuals and legal entities without charging penalties and fines. We decided to grant a delay for all clients during the pandemic and emergency situations in the country. The Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan provided state support for business – preferential financing at 8%, tax exemption, and support for the system of forming companies.
Our digitalization strategy of the company began to develop rapidly with the onset of an emergency related to the pandemic. In a short time, we implemented online services for our customers – “debt verification”, “loan payment”, and “loan deferral application”. Currently, clients can get services without visiting the company’s offices.
We value our team, at such an uncertain time for the whole of humanity, we decided to support our employees and pay salary for working employees – for remotely working 100% of the salary, for non-working employees 50% of the salary – so our employees have financial support during the pandemic.
For the emergency period in the country, the contact center of our company is fully operational. We advise our clients on terms of deferred credit, repayment methods, as well as on the current situation of COVID-19 and emergency in the country.
TASCREDIT’s current portfolio is 32.3 million euros, for the first quarter of 2020, portfolio growth is 7%.
We regularly pay our obligation to our investors, partners and customers and continue to implement our strategic plans for the company.”
CEO, Dulat Tastekeyev
View TASCREDIT’s financial report (available only in Russian)
May 6, 2020
Dineo’s letter to fellow investors
“First and foremost, I hope that your family and loved ones are safe at home and making the best out of these uncertain times we live in. At Dineo, we understand that investment opportunities and cash availability often don’t make a good partnership during a global crisis but that is exactly what we offer to our investors.
Spain, as any country around the world, is having a negative impact on the economy at the present time. Yet we still see opportunities and needs to be met by our customers now and in the foreseeable future.
Certain legislation aimed to protect people impacted by the economic downturn, establishing the possibility of payment moratoriums has emerged recently, generating doubts over increasing defaults and illiquidity concerns.
At the present time, our full focus is on the Spanish market. We are having limitations in our business due to mainly being the only payday lending company in Spain that has physical stores for customers – points of sale (POS), yet our digital business has been sustained and has overcome the absence of such POS due to country lockdown and of government’s measures to avoid COVID-19 spreading through businesses’ shutdowns.
Certain customers in Spain can request a moratorium to their repayment and, although we aren’t a supervised body subject to the specific finance institution law, we believe that we must help those in need. As such, we keep operating and aiding our customers, and that has always been clear to us.
On the other hand, even with moratorium being a real possibility, we have never been more certain that paying back in full is necessary to gain investors’ trust. Hence, we have decided to pay not only on a bi-weekly basis – given settlement amounts are over 100k – but regular interest payments plus principal on every loan on the marketplace that gets invested in. It will be more beneficial for investors, but also for us, making sure investors’ confidence with us remains high.
We believe in the market and Mintos as a platform that can uphold the interests of lending companies and investors to provide a beneficial relationship to all parties involved. We believe that our investors help us sustain our business and as any customer, we should look out for those who believe and deposit their trust in us.
We at Dineo are preparing for the economy to bounce back considering diverse market opportunities that will emerge from this crisis and we will keep our investors duly informed of what’s next on our roadmap.”
Juan Luis Isava
Director at Dineo
Note: Dineo’s financial report to be uploaded soon
May 6, 2020
Message from Lime-Zaim’s CEO, Alexey Nefedov
“Dear Mintos Investors,
First of all, I would like to express my high appreciation for the years of our cooperation. Thanks for the support, with your help our company has become one of the Top 10 companies in the Russian alternative finance market.
With the current uncertainty, I find it important to share with you our business development plans, especially considering the extraordinary measures being taken to stem the COVID-19 spread. There are three main factors in play that should give you a better understanding of Lime’s good position.
First, Lime-Zaim is a mature company that has long been operating on the Russian market, and we successfully navigated a similar crisis in 2014 – 2015 that resulted from a rapid decline in oil prices. Even though neither of those events had a direct impact on our business, we did see some temporary borrower behavior deviations. In particular, we experienced a moderate drop (2.2% – 4.6%) in the recovery rate for our 3 months vintages and an increased number of loan prolongation requests. We observe more or less the same changes in behavior today. Bearing in mind this experience, we are preventively tightening our credit policies for new loans and even more thoroughly monitoring our portfolio performance.
Second, the Russian government is heavily involved in the national economy. In normal times, this constrains growth, but in a period of a crisis, such intervention becomes the strongest shock absorber, since the number of people, employed in the public sector or state companies, remains considerable. Of course, those of our clients who are not involved in government-backed sectors may suffer as expected moderately increasing inflation will lead to consumer prices outpacing wages for the next few months or even quarters. This will result in a decrease (perhaps not entirely noticeable) of living standards.
Third, we operate completely online through our LIME platform, so no physical contact with the client is needed. This is a significant going-concern advantage. Lime-Zaim is a full-cycle FinTech company, and all business processes are implemented inhouse. We do not depend on third-party contractors or outsourcing firms. Historically our company has a high level of operational efficiency.
Nevertheless, based on our seven years’ expertise and in-depth analysis of clients’ behavior during the 2014 – 2015 crisis, we adequately assessed the potential risks associated with the current situation and took preventive actions to mitigate those risks. We revised the budget and slightly slowed down our growth plans for 2020. Additionally, we paused all new investments until the situation stabilizes.
As of now, Lime-Zaim has no pending payments to Mintos or to any other lender as maintaining good relations with investors is our top priority, especially during these times. In order to make sure that we are continually able to meet our obligations to Mintos investors, we have adjusted our originations plans to emphasize short-term (up to 42 days) loans to maintain a high level of liquidity. Working with shorter-term loans allows us to closely monitor clients’ repayment tendencies and to immediately adjust our credit policy when needed.
Finally, I would like to thank all our Mintos investors once again for investing in Lime-Zaim loans. You are very important to us and we truly appreciate our cooperation. For our part, we work hard and do our best to meet your expectations of consistently high returns.
Thank you very much and keep safe.”
CEO, Alexey Nefedov
Note: Lime Zaim’s financial report is yet to be released
May 7, 2020
Update from Finclusion (GetBucks)
“In light of the recent developments related to COVID-19 globally, Finclusion team would like to update our partners on the current state of business, measures and precautions we have taken going forward. We have been closely monitoring the situation and we are proactively ensuring the continuity of our business, as well as the safety and well-being of our employees.
Despite the spread of the virus and the range of lockdown and preventative measures that have been put in place to curb it’s spread, our teams continue to operate and support our customers through these uncertain times,” says Tim Nuy, founder of Finclusion.
Our Southern African operations
“One of the greatest advantages of having a predominantly digital business model is the flexibility to continue our daily operations without disruption, and easily apply the necessary safety precautions for both our employees and customers.
We have provided everything required for our teams to work remotely as long as it might be required. Our centralized infrastructure is fully capable of supporting this remote arrangement and our employees are following all the necessary procedures to maintain the highest security standards, confidentiality and business performance.
While loan applications did initially decline at the start of the lockdown, we have seen the usual increase towards the end of the month with our online sales levels tracking in line with the first three months of 2020.
In addition, collections levels for the first few key collection dates remain at the levels seen through February and March. We have also expanded our collections networks to include self-payment options and are seeing strong growth in payments through these channels.
We used 2019 to finalize the optimization of both the portfolio and operations which resulted in a loss the December year-end. The business only needs to scale to 2.5 times current monthly sales to become profitable on a month by month basis. In addition, while there is an opportunity to recognize a significant provision release under IFRS9, the business has chosen to only realize one-third of the total possible release until the potential impacts of Covid-19 are understood.
While consumer demand has been depressed, we expect this to return to normal levels in the coming months. Our pro-active approach to tightening credit criteria in February has stood us in good stead and our planned introduction of psychometric scoring to augment the risk decision process will help us both to contain risk but also to expand our offering to an appropriate level of borrowers in the market,” says Mark Young, CEO of GetBucks South Africa
Our East African operations
“Our East African operations primarily service civil servants, and as such depend, to a greater extent on our physical infrastructure. The client-facing staff instituted a number of measures such as:
- ensuring safe social distancing within our physical locations;
- requiring face masks in public areas; and
- proving access to washing facilities for our staff and customers.
Loan volumes have however reduced as government employees are currently working in shifts or working from home. We have been securing a greater number of customers through our call center and we expect that sales will normalize in May/June as more and more civil servants start going back to work. We also expect to deploy an agent app that will allow agents to continue to generate sales, even whilst working from home.
With depressed sales, our focus has primarily been on ensuring that our collections remain strong. We primarily collect through deductions at source. We have also been ramping up our use of MPESA, the largest mobile money platform in East Africa to boost any potential collections shortfalls. We have also been managing cash outflows by closely monitoring operational and capital expenditure. As a result, we have built a cash buffer to take us through these turbulent times. The business has remained profitable both on a month to month basis and also for the 9 months to March 2020.
We are trying to use this period to strengthen our business and make it better able to withstand similar shocks in the future. We are already seeing the fruit of our conservative strategy in this period, however, we are positioning ourselves to grow significantly in the second half of the calendar year” says Tonderai Mutesva, CEO of GetBucks Kenya.
Finclusion’s financial report yet to be updated
May 7, 2020
Letter from Melivesa’s (E-Cash) CEO, Gia Tarieladze
“Dear Mintos Investors and Partners,
Hereby I would like to provide updated information about the COVID-19 situation, the way it has impacted Melivesa Holding and its wholly-owned subsidiary E-Cash.
From the very beginning of the pandemic, we made several bold steps to mitigate external risk factors: in order to guarantee the safety of our employees and to ensure smooth business process continuity, we fully switched to remote work, optimized our credit scoring models, instantly responded to slightest changes in the financial market and conducted active work with each borrower.
In 2019, our revenue increased by 538% and with the steps made in the time of the pandemic, we maintained the upward trend during the first quarter of 2020 – the total gross portfolio increased by 21% up to ₴ 110 million (€ 3.7 million). We have a solid balance sheet in terms of liquidity – current assets constitute about 90% of total assets as it was maintained during the year of 2019. The company has taken decisive cost-cutting steps which increased operational efficiency and gave the possibility to maintain general & administrative expenses at the level of 22% of the total revenue, historically in the range of 40%.
Our strategy in this situation is as follows:
- We offer special prolongation programs to our customers.
- We do not charge penalties and any additional commissions to our customers.
- Concentrate on creditworthy clients and hence keeping portfolio quality and level of delinquency.
- Increasing cash liquidity.
- No pending creditors (including investors through Mintos).
As we already see some positive signs of the market rebound, we are preparing carefully for returning to the fast-growing business model and actively expand our operations in new customers’ market with charging them 0% on the first loan as well as we plan some other marketing campaigns.”
With kind regards,
Gia Tarieladze
CEO of Melivesa Holding LTD
May 7, 2020
Update from Fireof team
“Dear investors, in these unprecedented and turbulent times, everyone is worried about the safety of their investments, therefore we would like to update you on the current situation at Fireof.
Despite the severe hit of the Spanish economy by the COVID-19, we at Fireof are staying optimistic about the future. Similarly to many companies across the country, we managed to get government support to get through the difficult times, which allowed us to refocus operations from growth to management of the existing assets. We’ve also managed to fully reorganize our operations to remote work, to keep our employees and their families safe.
Our current focus is on having a personal approach to every borrower to identify any potential problems as early as possible. Our main strategy from the very beginning was to invest the funds only in safe assets which lead us to create a balanced mortgaged-backed portfolio of loans with average LTV across the portfolio below 30%. Now we are seeing the benefits of it: in the last two months, we haven’t felt any significant increase in the amount of bad debt across our portfolio, as our clients are not willing to lose their real estate.
Meanwhile, we are working internally on a new development strategy for the business once the Spanish government lowers the existing restrictions and the economy reactivates again.”
Fireof team
Fireof’s financial report is yet to be released
DelfinGroup publishes consolidated financial results of 2019 and Q1 2020
2019 audited results
The group’s turnover in 12 months of 2019, compared to the same period of the previous year, has increased by 16% to € 21.8 million, while the company’s loan portfolio amounted to € 31.6 million, which is an increase of 56% over the period.
In 2019, the group’s operations were affected by the changes in the Law on Consumer Rights that came into force on July 1, 2019. The audited results show that the company has been able to keep growing in size and in profitability under the new regulation. One reason for such a track record is that 36% of the group’s revenues are generated by pawnshop operations (pawn loans, sale of goods etc.) which are not subject to the new regulation. Another reason is the company’s overall efficiency achieved by the introduction of new value-adding services and products and by closely monitoring the cost base. The company has further increased the maximum loan amount to € 5 000. The group continued to develop its newest brand VIZIA reaching 75% annual growth in the net loan portfolio.
The company celebrated the 10-year anniversary in October 2019 and marked the first completed business decade by defining a brand-new corporate identity, including the change of name to DelfinGroup in February 2020. DelfinGroup’s upgraded mission is to create and provide innovative and custom finance solutions to its clients.
In Q4 2019, DelfinGroup prepared for the new € 5 million bond issue. The subscription for the new bond issue was started on November 15, 2019, and by now is subscribed by 72% or € 3.6 million.
By implementing business strategy and all planned activities, the following financial results of the group were achieved in the year 2019 compared to the year 2018:
Net loan portfolio: € 31.55 million (+56.2%)
Assets: € 38.27 million (+43.5%)
Net profit: € 3.91 million (-3.5%)
On March 12, 2020, the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Latvia decided to declare an emergency situation in the country in relation to COVID-19. Even though the length and negative economic impact of the emergency situation cannot be precisely estimated, the Company has made and will make in the future, decisions to ensure the Company’s liquidity, cost reduction and portfolio quality until the COVID-19 situation is solved
View DelfinGroup’s audited results for 2019
Q1 2020 interim results
The group’s turnover in the 1st quarter of 2020 compared to the same period of the year 2019 has increased by 17.5%, reaching € 4.81 million, while comparable profit amounted to € 1.04 million.
On February 4, 2020, the Enterprise Register of the Republic of Latvia registered changes in the name of the company. The change of corporate identity was necessary to better reflect what the company is doing and is planning to do moving forward. The group already offers a diverse mix of non-bank consumer lending services and is in the process of creating new custom finance solutions. The new name is future-oriented to facilitate the group’s growth through the development of new financial products and solutions.
DelfinGroup’s vision is to achieve the highest recognition level on the basis of its existing values: simplicity, accessibility, respect, and progress. The company has also defined three new values that are already an integral part of its development: ambition, mastery and major focus on the client.
In the first months of 2020, DelfinGroup operated in accordance with the company’s values, strategy and goals set. On March 12, 2020, a state of emergency was declared in the country in response to COVID-19, and consequently, the company’s focus was quickly changed from development to adjustment to the emergency situation. DelfinGroup focused on providing sufficient cash reserves, reduced sales and administration costs. In line with the economic situation, a stricter assessment of borrowers’ solvency was introduced, resulting in fewer but better-quality loans. The decisions made are oriented towards risk reduction and the speed of the company’s growth was reduced accordingly.
In the 1st quarter of 2020, the company attracted additional financing in the amount of € 2.5 million for ISIN LV0000802379 bonds issued on 15 November 2019, which have been redeemed for the total amount of € 3,569,000 or 71% as of 31 March 2020. The raised funds were used to partially repay existing liabilities to the Mintos peer-to-peer lending platform and to repay the principal amount of ISIN LV0000801322 bonds.
Following the impact of COVID-19 in Europe in March 2020, investor activity on the Mintos peer-to-peer lending platform declined and interest rates rose. At the end of the first quarter of 2020, the effective rate of the company’s liabilities on the Mintos platform increased to 11.36%, followed by a stabilization of the rate and an increase in investor activity in April 2020.
By implementing business strategy and all planned activities, as well as by the introduction of emergency solutions in response to the effects of COVID-19, the following financial results of the Group were achieved in the 1st quarter of 2020:
Net loan portfolio: € 32.49 million (+3%)
Assets: € 40.33 million (+5.4%)
Net profit: € 1.04 million (+2.6%)
*Net loan portfolio and Assets compared to the amounts as at 31.12.2019.
**Net profit is compared to the respective period of the year 2019.
View DelfinGroup’s presentation on Q1 2020 results
View DefinGroup’s unaudited financial statements for Q1 2020
May 7, 2020
Sun Finance reaches a record quarterly revenue of € 33 million
Sun Finance Group, one of the fastest growing online consumer lending companies and one of the largest and most profitable loan originator groups listed on Mintos, releases its Q1 2020 financial results as well as provides an update to Mintos investors related to COVID-19 situation.
In Q1 2020, the Group continued to showcase strong financial performance, recording € 33.3 million revenues for the period (surpassing the € 30 million quarterly revenues mark for the first time) – an increase of 74% versus Q1 2019.
Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation & Amortization (EBITDA) increased by 213%, reaching a level of € 11.6 million in Q1 2020 vs € 3.7 million in Q1 2019. This translates to a healthy EBITDA margin of 34.9%.
During Q1 2020, the Group issued € 82 million in loans to its customers, an increase from € 73 million in Q1 2019 (+11%), bringing the total Group volumes issued to ~€ 575 million. The strong growth has helped to establish a strong and well-diversified net portfolio, reaching € 62 million, mainly driven by the new markets (Sweden and Vietnam), and, in turn, resulting in a strong capitalization ratio of 32.1%1.
“While we have not observed material worsening in payment discipline in 6 out of 7 markets, we have taken pre-emptive steps to mitigate a potential negative effect of the current global situation, please see the more detailed breakdown by the market in our Q1 2020 Financial results presentation. In general, we are seeing stabilisation across markets as well as improvement across several areas and expect to return to business as usual within the foreseeable future.
We have materially reviewed Group’s cost base, significantly reducing payroll expenses (~40% cuts in HQ as well as different initiatives across all markets) as well as most of our administrative expenses to maintain profitability during Q2 2020. Please see our Q1 2020 Financial results presentation for a more detailed explanation on our response to the current situation.
Following the strong ending of 2019, we started the year on a high note and continued strong and sustainable growth across all our markets, having added Sweden and Vietnam to our Group structure during Q1 2020 as well. Our record revenues and EBITDA results are a great measure of that – even though we already started to scale back growth strategy during the second half of March.
During the latter part of March, we closely scrutinised and reviewed our cost base across all countries as well as the HQ, ensuring that we can maintain our strong equity base even in a severe market downturn. Additionally, all our teams worked hard to adjust current processes and our risk appetite to be appropriate for this period and we are seeing this work coming to fruition.
We are certain that steps taken by Sun Finance Group will be sufficient to strengthen our positions across all markets in the long term, as we are already seeing stabilisation across most of our markets.
We appreciate the trust of all investors who continue providing important financing to our business. We continue to operate in full transparency by both providing regular updates on our finances as well as by clearing any and all pending payments when feasible (i.e. except for barriers beyond our control, as updated in weekly pending payments update).
The terrible thing about crises – they always happen. The wonderful thing – they always end.”, Comments Sun Finance Group founder and CEO Toms Jurjevs.
1 Capitalisation ratio calculated as Adjusted Equity (Equity plus Subordinated Debt) to Net Loan portfolio
View SunFinance’s financial report
May 12, 2020
A message to Mintos investors from StikCredit team
“Dear friends,
We write to you to provide you with an update regarding the COVID-19 situation and the recent developments on our side.
Stikcredit team has navigated the adverse events with great professionalism and strong leadership, and as a result, we have been able to maintain the stability and strength of the company. As we shared in our last update, we acted swiftly and introduced a number of measures to help manage the crisis, including:
– increasing cash position to assure liquidity;
– ensuring the health and safety of all employees;
– adjusting the risk policy towards repeating customers with low-risk profiles and smaller loan amounts;
– reducing issuance volumes and other expenses (marketing, expansion, etc.) while putting more emphasis on early collection.
The measures taken at the beginning of the crisis have paid off as the company has reserved its strong financial position with high cash buffers (over 20% of assets) and perfectly balanced cash flows. As of today, we have not delayed the payment of any obligation and we have been able to meet all our liabilities in full.
The situation in Bulgaria is slowly returning back to normal with businesses that were restricted from working. We expect that this will have a positive impact on the economic environment as people are starting to receive their salaries regularly and that the outlook for our collection rates will further improve.
We remain cautious and will continue our conservative policy until we see market signals for long-term improvement. In the meantime, we are continuing to pay late payment interest for investors, despite the emergency state law that allows us not to do so.
May you and your families stay healthy.”
Kind Regards,
Stikcredit team
View Stik Credit’s financial report
May 12, 2020
Dziesiątka shares an update on the COVID-19 situation
“Currently, we can see that demand for our loans has increased significantly.
We are also aware of the fact that in this unusual pandemic time, we have to approach each client individually with great responsibility. As a result, we decided to tighten the criteria for granting loans and now we issue loans only to a selected group of the most promising clients. According to our estimates, this situation may result in 15-20% lower sales.
Of course, bearing in mind the safety of our employees and customers, our activities now focus on moving as much of the sales as possible to the remote channels, i.e. sales via the Call Centre. For this reason, we launched a new product “Halo pożyczka” – using a telephone client may receive a loan to his/her bank account within just a few minutes. After a few weeks from the launch, we can see that the product is very successful.
Over the next few days, we also expect the debut of another product – 10online.pl – with a fully automated loan process, based on a hi-tech scoring engine equipped with machine learning features.
At the same time, we are working to implement the same scoring engine to our main sales channel (door-to-door) to fully automate the decision process as well as better assessment of the credibility of our potential clients based on over 30 different factors. We see the current situation as an opportunity for the rapid development of our company.
Dziesiątka is a relatively young company, so, fortunately, most of the crises have bypassed us so far. In this unusual situation in which the global economy is, we focus on stabilizing our business and development of new products to keep up with the market after the pandemic.
We have formed an internal crisis management team to monitor the market situation on an ongoing basis, and all our activities are being adapted to changing conditions.”
Tomasz Bracki, Chairman of the Board
View Dziesiątka’s financial report (only in Polish)
May 12, 2020
DoZarplati shares comments on its financial results and the pandemic in Russia
“Dear partners,
For the second month we have been operating in a new, extraordinary and very unpredictable market environment, dictated by the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, we have transferred our activities online and now can observe a significant influx of customers. This form of doing business is a valuable experience for us, thanks to which we’ve learned how to instantly adjust to market changes in the terms of a dynamic and unpredictable socio-economic environment.
It seems the situation in Russia is getting better, and starting from May 12, the quarantine regime in the country will be weakened. On March 23, in order to protect employees from the infection, we transferred the entire staff to work remotely, and we are glad that none of the 400 employees has been affected.
For the partners, we publish the audited report of 2019:
– Net profit for the year amounted € 3.3 million;
– The net portfolio over the year increased 4 times (4x year-on-year growth);
– 98.3% of loans were issued online;
– In July 2019, we began to increase the share of a non-interest income through the sale of additional services;
– In December 2019, an average of 1.79 loans were issued every minute on a 24/7 basis;
– According to Expert rating agency, DoZarplati is a TOP-7 lending company in Russia in terms of amounts of loans issued per year.
In the second half of May 2020, we will provide reports on the first quarter of 2020, but, according to the preliminary data, it becomes obvious that the company is confidently growing, as the first-quarter profit is approaching € 300,000, and the net loan portfolio surpassing the € 15 million mark.
We are glad to conclude that despite the quarantine and a forced scoring tightening, we managed to maintain the growth rate of the net portfolio without a loss of quality of services provided.
In the nearest future, we see enormous prospects for further development and are already working hard to implement our plans.
Dear investors and partners, stay healthy and remember that the darkest hour is that before the dawn.”
Kind regards,
CEO, Pavel Sologub
View DoZarplati’s financial report (only in Russian)
May 28, 2020
ESTO will launch an automatic buyback for all loans extended due to the COVID-19 pandemic
“Dear ESTO Investors,
We acknowledge that loan schedule extensions have become an increasing problem for investors. Internally in ESTO, we do not consider “extended” loans the same as “current” loans when it comes to quality and risk. Extended loans have hope for recovery, but they are showing the first indicators of issues with the client’s financial status and vulnerability in the current situation.
ESTO’s management is thankful to our increasing base of investors on Mintos and we understand that in many cases, investors have planned their investments with terms they initially had selected.
Therefore, we will automatically buy back all loans which get extended by our clients from Mintos due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to keeping our pending payments at zero, ESTO’s second goal is to keep investors’ cash flow as it was initially planned when they invested in our loans. Our cash position has remained strong at all times, and we also stand strong behind our buyback model.
Estonia has suffered a two-month lockdown which has helped us to flatten the curve, and by now the social restrictions have been finally eased. ESTO’s team is happy to be back together in the office and continue to grow our business. We hope to deliver news about our developments, new payment products, and markets soon.
We have been closely communicating with clients and monitoring their payment behavior at all times. Currently, we have not seen any notable changes in portfolio quality, and our current rate of the portfolio remains at levels over 90%. ESTO’s management has increased focus on improving the company’s scorecards and risk thresholds with new additional data points. There have been some requests for payment holidays and loan extensions. So far out of approximately 26 000 active contracts, 360 clients have extended their contracts, which represents a portion of 1% of the overall portfolio.
To conclude, we will eliminate the extensions burden from our investors and keep their cash flow as it was initially planned.
ESTO will present audited 2019 financial year figures to our investors on 30.06.2020. The independent audit was conducted by BIG4 auditing company KPMG International.”
Kind regards,
Mikk Metsa
CEO of ESTO
May 29, 2020
Revo, the most recent lending company to join Mintos, shows strong performance in first quarter 2020
Revo Technologies (Mokka), the lending company that launched on Mintos most recently, presents its Q1 2020 results.
Key financial highlights of Q1 2020
– Overall transaction volume reached € 20 million (1,3x vs Q1 2019)
– Gross transaction revenues reached € 6 million (1,9x vs Q1 2019)
– Portfolio reached € 24,4 million (1,2x vs Q1 2019)
– PBT reached € 0,2 million (9,9x vs Q1 2019)
– Capital adequacy ratio (NMFK 1) is 13,3%, stable as compared to 14% in Q1 2019
Outlook for Q2-Q4 2020
Timofey Shagun, CEO of Revo Technologies: “While results in Q1 2020 somewhat exceeded expectations, we started Q2 on a cautious note, with Russia introducing COVID-19 lockdown measures on March 30, 2020.
Lockdown caused the closure of many of our offline partner stores, while our online partners and loyal customers continued to enjoy our service unimpeded. If anything, the crisis reinforced our belief in our omnichannel business model, which served us well in this difficult environment. The COVID-19 crisis also positioned us as the partner of choice for leading retailers, who saw our continued support to them across their customer touchpoints with the best technological solutions in the market.
Our team shifted easily to working remotely and all our services and customer support maintained a high level of access and execution 24×7. In this context, we saw a rise in our transactions in online stores and continued interest in our additional services by our loyal customers, who continued to take advantage of our services online and on their phones.
In anticipation of worsening economic conditions, we also took steps to quickly adjust our underwriting and collection strategies, launching measures to encourage early repayment and reduce exposure to higher risk customer segments. Collection resources were expanded to handle any incoming inquiries regarding loan restructuring and also to proactively address the deterioration in payment discipline.
Results of our stress-testing for the rest of 2020 show healthy liquidity and capital adequacy ratio even with a 50% drop in operating income. Our policy is to maintain a fully hedged FX position and to continue to maintain a strong cash position and a well-diversified funding mix, consisting of both institutional investors, family offices, individuals, and banks.”
View Revo’s financial report (in Russian)
June 12, 2020
COVID-19 – recent developments with a positive outlook. An update on the current situation from the Group CEO of Credissimo
Ivelin Kamburov, CFO of Credissimo Group: “Since the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic, we at Credissimo have been closely monitoring the situation and have managed to ensure the continuity of our business, as well as the safety and well-being of our employees by taking proactive measures of precaution, allowing to maintain high delivery standards of our products and services and continue to support our customers.
In order to support consumers during these turbulent times, our company has changed the terms of our loans in favour of clients affected by the COVID-19 crises. We have also launched a charity campaign in which we donate an amount of each loan installment paid to different charity causes in support of the first-line fight against the virus.
An entirely online-based business model of operations gave us the flexibility to continue daily operations undisrupted as well as proved to be very well-suited to the emergency conditions and ensured complete safety for the company’s customers and employees alike – from application, through approval to receiving and, consequently, repaying the loan – everything was done fully online, without the need for any human interaction.
Although we are faced by the harsh economic conditions globally, the fact that we have managed to continue providing our services uninterrupted is helping us adjust to the “new normal” much faster as we have started to adapt to the post lockdown times in Bulgaria. Luckily, the country has been one of the least affected ones in Europe and is now going gradually back to its normal functioning. The majority of businesses, which have been more or less affected by the pandemic, are able to commence their operations once again and people are going back to their workplaces.
We are glad to confirm that the situation in Credissimo is stable and we are returning to our normal levels of work. Almost all our employees are already back at the headquarters, operating in full compliance with all anti-epidemic measures.
To you, our respected investors on Mintos, we would like to emphasize some facts:
- – As the government of Bulgaria has adopted a law that banned late interest and penalties’ charges during the lockdown and effective some months ahead, we do not receive them on our delayed loans. Nevertheless, we continue paying late interest payments to Mintos investors.
- – As part of the measures we initiated towards our clients in need, we extended their loan terms facilitating their current difficulties, a measure widely adopted by the banks in the country. Nevertheless, we decided not to adopt the extension functionality on Mintos and, thus, not pass the effect to our investors, which meant we had to repurchase every single loan extended by us to our clients. This decision resulted in a couple of more significant repurchases in April and May.
- – At the same time, we managed to maintain a strong liquidity position during the pandemic, settled all our weekly obligations on time and kept our pending payments at minimum.
- – We do not play around with interest rate levels and do not repurchase higher-interest loans just for the sake of re-placing the same loans at lower rates, and do not benefit at the expense of our investors. We can assure that the new weekly supply of loans is all fresh loans that were not placed before on the platform.
We would like to thank you, Mintos investors, for your trust placed in us as we have always aimed to maintain our position of a reliable and transparent partner.
Stay safe!”
