IuteCredit: Group performance not affected by license revocation in Kosovo
IuteCredit Europe (“ICE”), a leading European personal finance group, does not expect the revocation of the license from IuteCredit Kosovo (ICKO) to have a material impact on the Group’s performance of IuteCredit Europe for the full year 2019.
The financial impact of the stopped loan origination is minimal under the current circumstances, given the small size of the net loan book in Kosovo, which amounts to 9.3 million EUR, respectively 12.4% of the Group’s net loan portfolio. The still ongoing collection of receivables from customers continues to contribute to revenues supported by a very good repayment behavior of customers in Kosovo with a current CPI 30 of 90.0% in November. CPI 30 as an indicator of customers’ actual duly repayments against the expected payments, plus a 30 days tolerance. EBITDA will only be minimally impacted. Since ICKO is only a start-up, i.e., country operations ramping up, the influence on the net result will also be limited so far.
In order to protect the Company, in particular, the employees, business partners, and investors of IuteCredit, against the unexpected revocation of its license by Central Bank of Kosovo (CBK), the Management Board immediately instructed a renowned commercial law firm. At the same time, IuteCredit will continue to cooperate fully with the regulatory authorities in Kosovo. The Company will disclose information as soon as new findings become available.
“We are pleased that some investors have already expressed their confidence and support and share our assessment that the situation is manageable and essentially uncritical. It is regrettable, that the lack of legislation on effective interest rates and the respective caps makes the offering of loan products more complicated in a developing economy. In contrast, the outstanding quality of the current portfolio, operations process in loan collection, and our team in Kosovo underline our position. As of today, we should meet our goals for 2019”, said Tarmo Sild, Group CEO of IuteCredit Europe.