Euroloan Group Oyj: Euroloan Group Plc Annual Review 1.1.-31.12.2013

Helsinki, Finland, 2014-03-04 07:55 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Euroloan Group PLC strengthened its balance sheet during 2013, with a balance growth of 121% and the equity ratio growing to 32%. The group consolidated its ownership of the main subsidiaries Euroloan Consumer Finance PLC and Crédito Cobro Ltd to 100% ownership, eliminating minority interest in the financial year's figures.

Law changes in the biggest market (Finland) necessitated a change of business model in May 2013. The new service, a virtual credit card offering continous credit to customers, has been very well received and lending volumes have been growing impressively from the start in May, reaching new volume records in December. Preliminary sales figures also show significant lending volume growth month on month in January and February 2014.

Regulation changes affected also the collection business, limiting collection fees and affecting sales volume growth.

	2012	2013
Balance (million EUR)	14,6	32,1
Balance Growth	36 %	121 %
Total income (million EUR)	9,6	10,0
Turnover (million EUR)	9,6	7,4
EBIT (million EUR)	2,1	1,8
EBIT/Sales**	22 %	25 %
EBIT* (million EUR)	2,1	1,9
EBT* (million EUR)	1,0	0,5
Net profit (million EUR)	0,5	0,3
Equity ratio	11 %	32 %
*impairment of goodwill excluded
**excluding sale of assets

BALANCE SHEET	2012	2013
ASSETS
NON-CURRENT ASSETS
Intangible assets	2 739 634,94	10 232 471,69
Tangible assets and investments	48 570,76	33 613,15
TOTAL NON-CURRENT ASSETS	2 788 205,70	10 266 084,84
CURRENT ASSETS
Current Receivables	10 806 733,94	16 049 744,57
Cash and Bank Receivables	956 824,83	5 812 049,60
TOTAL CURRENT ASSETS	11 763 558,77	21 861 794,17
TOTAL ASSETS	14 551 764,47	32 127 879,01
EQUITY & LIABILITIES
EQUITY
Share Capital	5 000,00	80 000,00
Translation difference	-4 524,53	59 381,30
Reserve for invested non-restricted equity	656 611,01	8 926 838,66
Retained earnings	535 499,16	946 438,65
Profit for the Financial period	460 939,49	321 876,30
TOTAL EQUITY	1 653 525,13	10 334 534,91
MINORITY INTEREST	1 285 897,30	0,00
CONSOLIDATION DIFFERENCE	57 226,70	42 615,63
LIABILITIES
Non-current Liabilities	139 000,00	8 402 955,00
Current Liabilities	11 416 115,34	13 347 773,47
TOTAL LIABILITIES	11 555 115,34	21 750 728,47
TOTAL EQUITY & LIABILITIES	14 551 764,47	32 127 879,01

INCOME STATEMENT	2012	2013
SALES	9 604 371,67	10 039 323,23
Materials and services	-12 782,33	-94 820,61
Personnel costs	-1 075 134,11	-1 691 766,10
Depreciation	-293 698,28	-1 143 414,65
Other business-related costs	-6 143 289,92	-5 275 684,74
EBIT	2 079 467,03	1 833 637,13
Financial income and expenses	-1 026 415,50	-1 392 914,78
EBT	1 053 051,53	440 722,35
Tax	-316 469,94	-118 846,05
Minority interest	-275 642,10	0,00
Net Profit	460 939,49	321 876,30

Notes to the financial statement

The financial statement above is an abbreviated version of the group financial statement. Please refer to the annual review (available at www.euroloan.com) for the complete figures.

The sales figures for 2013 are not comparable to the 2012 figures due to a fundamental change in business. Changing from a single loan provider to a provider of continuous credit also changes the accounting principle for sales.  An estimated additional 0,8 million EUR of sales turnover has been generated during 2013 that will be accounted for during 2014 according to current accounting principles for interest and fee income, increasing 2014 sales figures and operating profit by the same amount. Sales also include the sale of receivables portfolios. The financial statement includes depreciation of assets and credit losses.

From the CEO Tommi Lindfors

Changing industry

The global financial sector is currently undergoing a major change. Widespread physical branch networks are inefficient to scale and the cost of maintaining the branches has become prohibitively expensive for traditional financial institutions. This drives the change of the industry toward online services and automated business processes. This is evident in the ongoing downsizing trend in the banking industry.

FinTech efficiency

In Finland, a large bank is advertising a "mortgage decision within an hour". We have developed highly efficient and very scalable financial technology (FinTech ) systems that can make all the annual lending decisions in Finland and transfer the money to all those customers within that one hour.

High-speed business

The common theme during the year for the Group was getting a lot of projects into production and maintaining a high level of flexibility. The unofficial motto for Euroloan is that a single quarter for us is the same as a full year for more traditional companies – very true especially in 2013. Our staff of 40 people accomplished a lot within a single year.

New improved services launched

Euroloan completed a massive system project allowing us to provide continuous credit lines or virtual credit card products effectively and in many markets. The system’s enhanced mechanics for adaptive scoring help us better manage credit risk and improves our understanding of our customers’ repayment ability. The high automation level has brought our business to a completely new level of efficiency. Human factors, such as the loan officer having a bad day, a pleasant customer who has a bad credit history or plain stress will not affect the credit decisions we continuously make. We expect our improved business model to create growth in earnings and a stronger balance sheet during the next few years.

Positive credit register

A new, positive credit register was formed in Finland, with Euroloan as a founding member. It is finally available after years of stressing its importance in our press releases and interviews. The tool benefits both the customer and the lender as the number of bad debt decisions is minimized through improved credit risk and solvency modeling. Positive credit information has long been available and shown its worth for Euroloan in the Swedish consumer finance market.

First virtual credit card in Poland

Euroloan was the first operator to introduce a virtual credit card to the Polish market in December 2013. Facing an overwhelming demand for the service (more than the current total business volume of the Group), a careful approach was chosen by the Group’s Risk Committee, allowing only a limited lending volume to test the market for the time being. What was very positive was that Euroloan proved the technical ability to open a new country in just three months!

Professional Board of Directors

Euroloan Group recruited a professional Board of Directors and gave the external members a majority of the voting rights. New members Heikki Palosuo and Riitta Salonen have extensive experience from the banking industry, Tapio Vuojärvi has lead a large Finnish collection company, Timo Saini (Chairman of the Board) is an experienced board professional and Jonas Lindholm has an impressive background in risk management and strategy.

Consolidation of ownership

A deal with a total value of EUR 28 million was completed, where the Group acquired the entire share capital of Euroloan Consumer Finance PLC and Crédito Cobro Ltd. The parent company's name was changed to Euroloan Group PLC (formerly Cochito Ltd) and the shareholder’s equity was increased to the required level for a public limited company.

SFSA License

The Group’s Swedish subsidiary Euroloan Finance AB applied for a license to become a credit market company (Kreditmarknadsbolag) regulated by the Swedish Financial Services Authority (SFSA). The license will allow the company to receive Swedish state-guaranteed (up to EUR 100 000 per depositor) deposits from the public. The application is expected to lower the Group's consolidated financial costs significantly.

Regulatory changes

Laws affecting both consumer finance and debt collection were fundamentally changed in Finland during 2013. This caused a lot of tight deadlines and a lot of extra work for our personnel. Major investments in systems and processes were required to meet the new regulations, and the lending business restarted from scratch in May 2013.

New business areas

Euroloan started two new business areas; Corporate Loans and Deposits. Companies may apply for EUR 50.000 - 200.000 loans and their accounts receivables are used as collateral in the service with automated receivables management. The organizational structure for receiving deposits was built in preparation for the credit market company license under SFSA. A managing director and key personnel were recruited and the Swedish subsidiary's (Euroloan Finance AB) equity was increased to five million euros. Group equity was increased by more than 8 million euros and the total balance increased over 120%.

Collection

The Group’s collection business Cobro24 increased its number of customers to about 50, all of them of significant size. Our automated high-volume debt collection services are currently used by companies with high collection volumes, such as banks, cities, insurance companies and municipalities.

For more information about Euroloan Group PLC please see: http://www.euroloan.com

         Jonas Lindholm, Group CFO, Board Director
         Phone: +358 10 217 1003