Home Credit provides loans worth CZK 1.27 billion and down 18 percent
Home Credit, one of the largest companies on the Czech hire-purchase market, financed purchases worth CZK 1.272 billion in the first quarter of 2006, a decline of 18 percent against the same period last year, spokeswoman Andrea Dobsikova told CTK today.
The company’s competitors have not published their first-quarter figures yet.One-off consumer and revolving loans were the biggest contributor to Home Credit deals, amounting to CZK 1.181 billion, up nearly seven percent on the year.
The fall in the overall turnover was caused by a decline in cash loans, which reached CZK 90 million in the first three months of the year.”Unlike the first quarter of last year when the company offered this loan on a massive scale, Home Credit will focus on a completely new product that will be launched at the end of the first half of 2006,” Dobsikova said.
Unlike 2004 and 2005 when consumers took advantage especially of sales in January and early February, people used hire purchase to a much larger extent also in February and March this year. In March alone, Home Credit provided one-off consumer loans worth nearly CZK 218 million, a year-on-year increase of almost 37 percent.
“The increased demand for consumer loans in March was also due to a decline in prices of TV sets and set-top boxes after the Olympic Games, with customers motivated to purchase by the outlook for two other top events of the sports season - the ice-hockey world championship in Latvia and the football championship in Germany,” Home Credit director Milos Stibor commented on the March figures.
Consumer electronics and home appliances accounted for 40 percent of Home Credit deals, a decrease from 47 percent last year. The number of consumer loans in the IT segment rose by 40 percent, while contracts to buy mobile phones dipped by six percent against the first quarter of 2005.
Home Credit also operates in Slovakia, Russia and Kazakhstan. The company is a unit of PPF, one of the largest Czech financial investors with assets worth CZK 250 billion.
