European small-ticket lessor
Parfip Lease has seen its portfolio quadruple in volume over the
past three years.
The lessor, which specialises in
financing industry security and technology products, reached
200,000 leasing contracts at year-end 2008, worth nearly €300
million. The company aims to exceed 500,000 contracts within three
years.
“Working closely with partners has
enabled us to continue to grow, despite the credit crunch,” said
Laurence Damster, a consultant at Parfip Lease. “They realise they
can grow quicker by working with us, developing their business
volumes in partnership with ours.”
In 2007, the company saw a record
growth of 80 percent and 45 percent last year.
“We are expecting a tougher year in
2009 – I expect demand to slow down, but it is too early to tell by
how much,” added Damster.
Funding for the lessor is provided
by one of its major partners and its main shareholder, Banque
Monétaire et Financière, part of CASDEN Banque Populaire, a French
bank.
Partners use an online automatic
credit scoring system developed by Parfip Lease, called Cyclosia.
To apply for finance, partners can enter customers’ details into
the system, which checks against local credit-scoring databases.
This is no mean feat, considering Parfip Lease works in 11 European
countries.
An “immediate answer” is given to
partners in 90 percent of cases. For more complex cases, the credit
team at Parfip Lease is committed to making a decision within a 48
hour period.
Explaining how the lessor aims to
achieve its medium-term objective of €1 billion worth of contracts,
Damster said it would focus on signing up new partners.
“One of the side effects of the
credit crunch is that partners will not be able to get new credit
lines from their bank, so they will then turn to alternative
finance partners, such as Parfip Lease,” she said.
“That and our service-oriented
approach make us a much more attractive choice.”