RO
The number of specialists involved in the operations grew by 15%
According to the latest study conducted by the Romanian Factoring Association (ARF), the factoring market, worth more than Eur 2.2 billion, registered a 13% growth as compared to the same period of 2017. “This year, the market maintained the 2017 growth trend, despite the factors that negatively impacted the economic sector, such as the continuous drop of public investments, the higher reference rate (which, on the short-term, meant higher financing costs), the exchange rate developments, the slowdown of consumption in the population. Halfway through last year, the growth was of 12% as compared to the same period of 2016” , explains Bogdan Roșu, president of the Romanian Factoring Association.
Spectacular export factoring boost
The review of the results in terms of the typology of commercial transactions has revealed that the domestic factoring maintained the same growth pace as last year, i.e., 14%, reaching, in absolute figures, a volume of Eur 1.76 billion. At the same time, the most spectacular growth was that of the export factoring, i.e., 21%, with almost Eur 73 million, considering that the same type of financing only registered a modest 3.5% growth last year. “Export factoring featured a constant positive evolution along the years, the benefits of the default risk hedging in the case of international trade clearly being the key reason why these solutions are so attractive to exporters”, mentions Bogdan Rosu.
As compared to the same period of last year, import factoring importantly regressed, dropping by approximately 48%, down to only Eur 37.6 million. However, since as compared to the overall market, this product has always had a modest share, with an implicitly low number of transactions, the fluctuations should not come as too much of a surprise, because the disappearance of a small number of commercial relations can significantly impact the volumes achieved during a certain period of time.
The FMCG sector – the “VIP” of internal factoring
In terms of the shares of the various sectors in the domestic factoring market structure, FMCG continues to lead, by 20%, with an increase of 13.5% as compared to the same period of last year. The companies belonging to the sector generically referred to in the ARF study as “metals, chemicals, water, recycling” rank second. Their share in the total factoring transactions is of 16%, with a 70% growth as compared to the same period of last year. In terms of shares, the third sector that turns to factoring for financing is “IT&C”, with close to 16%.
The “metals, chemicals, water, recycling” sector also contributes by more than 50% of the export factoring volumes and by more than 30% of the import factoring volumes, respectively.
ARF’s study has also confirmed that the profile of the companies accessing factoring has remained approximately unchanged as compared to last year. Thus, 39% are large companies with turnovers above Eur 50 million, while SMEs account for 28%.
An important contribution to the growth of the factoring market over the past year also belongs also resides in the number of companies that contracted new factoring facilities, which grew by 20% as compared to the same period of last year. As a matter of fact, the financial institutions (banks and NBFI) offering such products supplemented by 15% the number of specialists involved in the factoring operations.