The Home Credit Group, which provides consumer loans, had to reduce the number of employees worldwide by half after last year’s decline, which is about 60,000. This was stated in an interview for the Seznam Zprávy server by Ladislav Bartoníček, who was entrusted with the management of the PPF group, to which Home Credit belongs, after the death of billionaire Petr Kellner. Home Credit states on its website that by mid-2019 it had over 123,000 employees. Home Credit fell to a loss of CZK 15.3 billion last year due to the crisis caused by the covid-19 pandemic.
“We responded by dramatically cutting operating costs in China, significantly reducing the volume of new business and focusing on clients with a much better risk profile to keep the risk under control,” Bartoníček told the server. “Quite dramatically, we are moving into the form of a fintech company rather than a classic stone provider of consumer loans,” he added.
According to Bartoníček, consumer loans and financial services in general were affected by the effects of the covidu-19 pandemic and the related restrictions on the movement of people. “But to a large extent, this is offset by other businesses (PPF groups). Telecommunications are an extremely stabilizing element and the Mall Group, ie online sales, is also working well at the moment, which is such a blessing in disaster. Škoda Transportation, which we took over in a not entirely simple situation, it is now filled with orders like never before, which is the main thing for this type of company, “he described the situation at PPF.
In addition to China, Home Credit also operates in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia, Kazakhstan, India, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. According to Bartoníček, the effects of the covid-19 pandemic, which began to spread in China in December 2019, will not affect the expansion of Home Credit in Asia. “There are several things that coincided in China. On the one hand, there is the impact of the covid pandemic, and on the other hand, the influence of regulation, which has changed quite significantly in China and complicated our business model,” he said. “And it’s always been a complicated market, but on the other hand, it’s an amazing opportunity,” he added.
Home Credit originally considered listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. However, it stopped preparations at the end of 2019. “At the moment, no specific project is running, which does not rule out that we will not deal with it systematically,” Bartoníček said.
Petr Kellner, who owned over 98 percent of PPF’s shares, died in a helicopter crash in Alaska on March 27. Bartoníček has a 0.535 percent stake in PPF and the current CEO of Home Credit, Jean-Pascal Duvieusart, has the same stake.
Source: Seznam Zprávy and CTK
