Profireal Group, one of the significant providers of loans and credits in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Bulgaria, is preparing a change affecting its asset structure. By the year end 2007, Profireal Group is planning to create a standard holding structure, whereas the controlling company will be Profireal Group SE (a legal form of a company according to the European Union regulations) based in the Netherlands. The company will become a one hundred percent owner of the individual companies performing in the appropriate countries, inclusive of Profireal a. s. itself, which until now has been the proprietor of the individual companies.
The aim of these changes is to have a more transparent asset structure in place, which would bring Profireal into a better position in dealing with its financial partners. “The separation of our holding activities from the lending and loaning activities in the Czech Republic is the principal reason behind these changes” observed David Chour, General Manager Profireal Group.
The change of the structure and of the company seat pursues an additional goal. It subsists in the preparation of the group for a public issue of shares – IPO, which, in a medium-term horizon, represents a strategic objective for the stakeholders and for the company itself. “For the group, IPO entails a possibility of obtaining additional financial resources for the development of our activities in other countries”, added David Chour.
After Slovakia, Poland and Bulgaria, Profireal Group will have also entered the Romanian market by the end of this year, where it should provide the first loans as early as in December. In the next year, Profireal Group intends to enter the Russian market, while Hungary and Ukraine are also in the group’s viewfinder.
The financial group Profireal Group is divided into division PROFIREAL dealing with granting loans and credits both to the individual and corporate sectors, and division PROFIDEBT which specialises in retail claim trading. It has seen a remarkable expansion over the recent five years. After the opening of its branch in Slovakia in the year 2001, there followed a launch of loan-selling activities in Poland in the year 2004 and, at the end of the year 2006, Profireal sold its first loan also in Bulgaria. The division Profidebt is active in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia.
In the year 2006, the division PROFIREAL provided borrowings and loans at a face value of almost CZK 3 billion. The volume of claims traded by division PROFIDEBT then attained a total of CZK 1.1 billion in the course of the same year.
Since 2004, Profireal has been a member of the association SOLUS that administrates a register of debtors, through which the members may verify the creditworthiness of their loan applicants. Profireal was initiated into the Czech Leasing and Financial Association in April 2007.