Cofidis strengthens presence in car loans – publico

                 

                         
                     

                         

                 

 
                         

The Cofidis, one consumer credit multinational, completed the purchase of Banif Mais, a bank specialized credit. The acquisition, for EUR 400 million, allows that company to strengthen the provision of car loans at a time when this sector is high.

                     

                         The transaction had been announced late last year and was completed on Thursday. In a statement sent to the Portuguese Securities Market Commission, Banif said it sold the French Cofidis Participations its share of almost 86% in the company’s capital Banif Mais SGPS, which, in turn, owns all the capital of Banif Bank More.

The Banif Mais, whose main activity is the provision of credit to buy cars and also has a business loans to automotive companies, ended 2014 with a profit of EUR 21.8 million , 18% more than the previous year. Then employed 320 people.

According to the analysis of the Competition Authority, which had to authorize the deal, Cofidis has a market share in car loans will be at most 10%, the same as the Banif Mais (exact figures were not disclosed for confidentiality reasons). On balance only to the universe represented by the Association of Specialized Credit Institutions, the presence of Cofidis is somewhere between 0% and 5% and the bank, between 10% and 20%. This means that in this sample, Cofidis will at least double the share.

Both companies also have a share of the overall consumer credit market that does not exceed 10% in each.

The automobile sector has shown strong signs of recovery and is one of the drivers of the increase in consumer credit recently observed by the Bank of Portugal. Since mid-2013 the market is recovering from a sharp drop suffered during the financial crisis. Sales of passenger cars (which are often seen as a consumer sentiment indicator) grew 34.8% last year. This year, between January and May, the increase was 32.5%, according to figures from the Automobile Association of Portugal. The 79,585 cars sold in this period are the best value since 2010, a year that was also strong growth.

Banif will continue to work with Banif Mais, through a a “strategic partnership distribution and crossselling [cross-selling] for area specialized credit financing vehicles,” also said the bank.