Aforti Group – providing financial services for the SME sector, led by Aforti Holding S.A., a company quoted on the NewConnect market, published estimated operational-sales results at the end of February 2018.
From among subsidiaries, Aforti Finance S.A. is moving at the forefront – within two months of this year the company granted 107 loans with the total value of more than PLN 9.97 million, which is a YOY growth by, accordingly: 78.33 and 245.72 percent.
The indicated period was positively closed also by Aforti Factor S.A., offering factoring services to entrepreneurs, since at the end of February the value of liabilities financed by it amounted to more than PLN 1.53 million.
Promising results were also achieved by companies running web currency exchange platforms dedicated to entrepreneurs in Poland – Aforti Exchange S.A. and in Romania – Aforti Exchange Romania S.A. The first one in the period of January and February this year recorded the turnover of nearly EUR 23.65 million – 131.02 percent higher than the year before. At the same time, on the Romanian market Aforti Exchange Romania reached over PLN 3.18 million of turnover.
At the end of February 2018 the nominal value of debt collection orders acquired by Aforti Collections S.A. reached the level of PLN 2.60 million and was lower by 61.41 percent as compared to the year before, which was connected with the started remodelling of business.
In February, Aforti Finance granted 51 loans with the total value of more than PLN 5.49 million, which, as compared to the same period of the previous year, mean an increase by, accordingly: 45.71 and 233.21 percent.
“In February 293 entrepreneurs submitted credit applications to us for the total amount of nearly PLN 31.74 million. Number of applications increased by 80.86 percent year-over-year, and after first two months of this year by as much as 111.90 percent. This success was due to several factors. The first one is effective sales, as we’re constantly looking for new and innovative methods of reaching the client. The second, as shown by the latest market research, is a problem of payment backlogs. Some of our clients use non-bank loans in order to expand their companies, but there is also a high share of entrepreneurs who need funds because their contractors do not pay invoices on time” – comments Klaudiusz Sytek, owner of the Aforti Group and President of the Board of Aforti Holding S.A.
Apart from loans, entrepreneurs more and more often use factoring. For this reason, at the end of the previous year a new company providing this type of services appeared in the structures of the Aforti Group – Aforti Factor S.A. In February this year it financed liabilities amounting to PLN 1.00 million.
“The month-over-month value of liabilities financed by Aforti Factor increased by more than 87 percent, and I expect this trend to maintain and even gradually increase. The Company is taking the first steps on the factoring market, which is not easy since many entrepreneurs still not yet understood benefits of this services. From the data of the Polish Factors Association it seems that from among 600 companies of the SME sector examined in 2017, only slightly more than 14 percent, namely every seventh, uses factoring. Hence, we can see that the market in Poland may develop dynamically” – says Klaudiusz Sytek
According to the data obtained by PZF, factoring is most often used in operations of companies of the following sectors: HoReCa (24%), industry (20%), transport (14%) and trade (10%). Construction companies use this form of financial liquidity improvement least frequently – only 6%.
The upward trend is also improved every month by companies running the Internet currency exchange platform, also for entrepreneurs.
In February this year Aforti Exchange S.A. operating in Poland recorded PLN 11.17 million turnover on its platform, which means an increase by 176.59 percent YOY. During the same month, Aforti Exchange Romania S.A. operating on the Romanian market reached EUR 2.29 million of concluded currency exchange transactions.
“Companies operating on foreign markets are seeking for a possibly most favourable currency exchange options. Our platform gives it to them. We cooperate both with clients which exchange currencies periodically, as well as with those who exchange currencies every now and again. We can see that the tool proves effective” – summarises Klaudiusz Sytek, President of the Board of Aforti Holding S.A.
In February 2018 Aforti Collections S.A. achieved lower results. The nominal value of debt collection orders amounted to more than PLN 1.29 million (decrease by 23.83 percent YOY), and their number amounted to 35 as compared to 1,260 acquired the year before (decrease by 97.22%).
“The presented data are a result of remodelling of our business. It is necessary to understand and be aware of that, since they will still point to a negative trend for some time. When we started operations in the debt collection sector, we received many orders, only a part of which were cases with a good degree of recovery rate. We have decided to transform this quantity into quality and now we are more selective when it comes to accepting orders. We are currently focused on packages of liabilities meeting the specified criteria” – says clearly Klaudiusz Sytek