Bottom passed – Growth continues under different rules

OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

• Measures to overcome Corona-crisis well on track:
• Operating costs cut by -25% while keeping headcount at 350+ people.
• Treasury build-up of cash and gold backed exchange traded funds exceeding 12,0% of the balance sheet.
• Controlled contraction of balance sheet to 96,7 million EUR (Q1 2020: 105,6 million EUR); contraction has been stopped since July 2020.
• Number of loans issued in period under review down y-o-y 24,7% to 92.880 (H1/2019: 123.368).
• Principal amount of loans issued decreased y-o-y 23% to 49,9 million EUR (H1/2019: 65,0 million EUR).
• Gross loan portfolio down 2,3% to 90,0 million EUR (31/12/2019: 92,1 million EUR).
• Additional 7,9 million EUR added to loan provisions in Q2, total of 11,8 million EUR in H1/2020); reversal expected with customer repayment discipline current levels.
• Home markets prove to be remarkably resilient; loan demand and customer repayment discipline picking up since June 2020.
• Repayment discipline (Customer Performance Index, CPI) on course for recovery after interim decline; CPI0 and CPI30 still approximately by -5% down pre-pandemic.
• Annual percentage rates (APR) of newly originated loans increased by 8% on average, to compensate the increased risk environment; simultaneously recording stronger demand for loans.

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

• Interest and commission fee income up 27,5% to 22,7 million EUR (H1/2019: 17,8 million EUR).
• Net interest and commission fee income increased by 18.5% to 17,1 million EUR (H1/2019: 14,5 million EUR).
• Total income up 57,6% to 28,9 million EUR (H1/2019: 18,3 million EUR).
• Cost to income ratio at 27,1% (H1/2019:44,6%), reflecting different portfolio size and operational cost cutting.
• EBITDA increased by 5,4% to 9,9 million EUR (H1/2019: 8,6 million EUR).
• Strong capitalization and resilient profitability exceeding Eurobond covenants.
• Net profit for the period decreased 65,3% to 1,3 million EUR (H1/2019: 3,8 million EUR) as the Group added to provisions a very conservative 7,9 million EUR in Q2, totaling 11,8 million EUR.
• Increase in equity along with repayment of liabilities resulted in stronger equity ratio.

Tallinn, Estonia, 30 July 2020. IuteCredit Europe (“ICE”), a leading European personal finance group, reported today unaudited results for H1/2020.

“Uncertainties arising from coronavirus pandemic and its effects on our business prompted us from early March to take a conservative and strict course in the first of half of 2020. Accordingly, OPEX had to be cut, cash inflows were primarily used to repay liabilities and to build cash buffers, and very few new loans were issued, until clearance of the circumstances.

Our loan portfolio has passed the initial stress test with good cashflow results. At the moment, the treasury buffer may be too thick and needs positive exploitation during Q3 and Q4, if the situation evolves favorably. The balance sheet contracted slightly less than we had expected in our models, despite the conservative provisioning we applied to the gross receivables. In June, we accelerated new loan payouts again as the customer performance index had significantly improved since May. Most likely the business contraction is over, and the bottom has been passed.

We have probably set aside more provisions, than actually necessary and in line with the industry average. Creating the loan impairment buffers was the single largest expense factor in H1 profit statement. Considering the early signs of improved repayment discipline, we expect to see a reversal of provisions in the second half of the year and in a longer future.

Since the bulk effect of the grace periods and economic restrictions will probably be felt with a delay in the third and fourth quarters, IuteCredit’s results for the first half of 2020 are a ray of hope. We, therefore, stick to our assessment of commercial caution that the economic effects of the pandemic can still neither be determined in detail nor reliably quantified and that the results of IuteCredit will be down on the previous year. As we only had to make limited adjustments to our operating activities to meet the current challenges, we still have an ace up our sleeve – with the possibility of further OPEX cuts should we be exposed to unexpected setbacks. However, if the positive development in coping with the pandemic continues, we are confident that we will be able to make a profitable 2020, grow the performing asset base and performing customer pool above the 2019 level, and deliver a positive return on equity to shareholders,” said Tarmo Sild, Group CEO of IuteCredit.

The full unaudited report for H1/2020 is available here:

https://iute.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/200730_IuteCredit_1H2020_report.pdf