Cetelem Romania, a non-banking financial company controlled by a specialised division of the financial group BNP Paribas has budgeted new loans worth approximately 140 million euros for this year, about 40% more than in 2005. The development of the business will be backed by new product launches, as well as by the expansion of the distribution network, says Daniel Boaje, deputy general manager of the company.
"We granted 30 million euros in loans in the first three months of the year, an increase of 37% on the same time last year. We set out to maintain this rate of growth for the entire year," Boaje stated. The company granted 100 million euros in new loans last year, taking the total volume of funding to 300 million euros and accounting for 20% of the market, according to its own calculations. The company has granted over one million credits since it was established.
Cetelem will introduce car and personal loans, as well as credit cards in its portfolio in the forthcoming period.
Cetelem Romania is the former Credisson, a company set up by Dutch investment fund Oresa Ventures and businessman Florin Andronescu three years ago. Cetelem, the consumer finance division of the French BNP Paribas group acquired the entire company and the name change was meant to underline the lender is part of the group.
The French put a new manager at the helm, Philippe Foursy, 52, who has run the Greek branch of the group for the last three years. He says that this will not mean that the company will bring an inflow of expats on board, as the group preference is to leave the old team in charge of the operations on the domestic market. The main goal will be to ensure growth is sustainable, Foursy says, by keeping the customers'' tendency to borrow too much in check. Company officials say non-performing loans account for a little share of the total. liviu.chiru@zf.ro
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