Helsinki, 29 January 2019 – Ferratum Oyj (ISIN: FI4000106299, WKN: A1W9NS) (“Ferratum” or the “Group”) is pleased to announce the launch of services for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Poland through its business brand, Ferratum Business.
Ferratum Business begins offering SMEs the ability to obtain finance through invoice financing. Applications will be evaluated through a largely automated process based on the individual risk profile of the companies applying for the financing between EUR 1,000 and 100,000 with a duration of 30-90 days. The launch in Poland, where the Group has been operating with its consumer lending business since 2008, marks the ninth country of operation for Ferratum Business.
According to the Central Statistical Office of Poland, in 2017 the addressable Polish SME market segment for Ferratum Business comprised approximately 2 million SMEs. According to the Polish Factoring Association, the total invoice financing market in Poland was valued at approximately EUR 40 billion in 2017 and growing at 25% year on year from 2016 to 2017.
Scott Donnelly, Business Unit Director for SME Lending at Ferratum commented:
“The market for shorter-term invoice financing services is a very attractive but underserved business opportunity and we see significant potential in offering SME customers the flexibility of fast, convenient loans tailored to cover short term cashflow needs, rather than having to commit to larger, less flexible instalment loans. At the same time, we are able to gather large amounts of data efficiently and in short cycles, which we can utilize to further enhance our automated underwriting processes.
Combined with our in-house experience and knowledge of the Polish factoring market, as well as a decade of consumer lending experience in Poland, we have an excellent knowledge base from which to launch this new product segment. Once firmly established in the Polish market we can expect to transfer learnings from this new service to our operations in other countries to further enhance practices and underwriting for the benefit of our SME customers globally.”
Due to the phased roll-out of these invoice financing services, the Polish SME launch is not expected to materially impact the Group’s currency exposure in the first half 2019.
About Ferratum Group:
Ferratum Group is an international provider of mobile banking and digital consumer and small business loans, distributed and managed by mobile devices. Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, Ferratum has expanded rapidly to operate in 25 countries across Europe, Africa, South and North America and the Asia-Pacific region.
As a pioneer in digital and mobile financial services technology, Ferratum is at the forefront of the digital banking revolution. Ferratum's mobile bank, launched in 2016, is an innovative mobile banking platform offering a range of banking services, including real time digital payments and transfers, within a single app. It is currently available in five European markets. Ferratum has approximately 1.9 million active and former customers who have an account or have been granted one or more loans in the past (as at 30 September 2018), of which over 799,000 customers have an open Mobile Bank account or an active loan balance in the last 12 months.
Ferratum Group is listed on the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under symbol ‘FRU.’ For more information, visit www.ferratumgroup.com.
Contacts:
| Ferratum Group Dr. Clemens Krause Head of Finance and Risk T: + 49 30 921005844 E: clemens.krause@ferratum.com | Ferratum Group Emmi Kyykkä Deputy Head of Investor Relations T: +41 79 940 6315 E: emmi.kyykka@ferratum.com |
| UK / European media enquiries: Smithfield, A Daniel J Edelman Company Alex Simmons | Brett Jacobs T: +44 20 3047 2543 | +44 20 3047 2537 E: asimmons@smithfieldgroup.com E: bjacobs@smithfieldgroup.com |
