PPF Financial Holdings, which holds PPF Group’s group’s financial businesses, suffered an astronomical loss of 555 million euros (about 14.3 billion crowns) last year.
The pandemic completely changed the finances of the PPF FH group, which earned 507 million euros a year earlier. It published the results in last year’s annual report. “The main reason for the loss is that Home Credit was hit hard by the pandemic, while PPF banka remained profitable, although the profit is significantly lower compared to 2019,” the report said.
The financial group experienced the biggest shock in the first half of 2020 when it already achieved a modest profit of 31 million euros in the second half of the year. The Dutch company PPF Financial Holdings covers PPF’s activities in the Home Credit Group, PPF banka, the Serbian Mobi Bank, and the British ClearBank.
In addition to the adverse impact on the economy, the coronavirus and subsequent government measures hurt assets, loans, and equity. At the end of last year, PPF’s financial arm managed assets worth € 24.8 billion, compared to € 35.1 billion a year earlier.
The decrease in assets is the decrease in the loan portfolio of the Home Credit (HC) group. The volume of new HC loans fell from 20.2 billion euros in 2019 to last year’s 12.7 billion euros, a decrease of 37 percent. This significantly reduced the group’s credit business.
“We responded by dramatically cutting operating costs in China, significantly reducing new business volumes, and focusing on clients with a much better risk profile to keep risk under control,” Ladislav Bartoníček, minority shareholder, told the List of Home Credit Business Credits. PPF, which is now in charge of managing the entire PPF.
The annual report also states that the late owner of the PPF Group, Petr Kellner, has decided to move the headquarters of PPF Financial Holdings from the Netherlands to the Czech Republic. Deník N pointed this out earlier. According to the annual report of PPF FH, the change should be completed in June this year.
Kellner tragically died in a helicopter crash in Alaska in late March.
