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Bibby Financial Services Australia

Bibby Financial Services Australia launched in 2003, and has been one of the fastest growing providers of factoring and invoice discounting in the Australian market, growing at approximately 30% per year for six consecutive years. Bibby Financial Services Australia is part of the Bibby Financial Services Group with 32 companies in 11 countries worldwide (including the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Canada, USA, Australia and India). Our global presence means we can deliver our clients a comprehensive service, regardless of where their trading partners are. Bibby Financial Services Australia specialises in confidential and notified factoring and discounting services, including domestic and export products and operate in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth (launched in late 2008), servicing clients nationally.

The environment for factoring and discounting in Australia remains positive, with average debt turn increasing, banks continuing to restrict funding to SMEs, business conditions down on historical levels. However, overall growth in the local factoring and discounting industry was subdued in 2009, driven by the tightening in bank product criteria, higher client losses due to business failure, and the exit of one of Australia’s major banks from the product market. As a result, lenders have had to exercise caution in balancing growth with maintaining risk controls. We are pleased to have remained able to continue lending to SMEs and in supporting our clients through difficult circumstances.

We have further consolidated our position as a leading independent factor in the Australian market, with client growth strong at approximately 20% year-on-year and losses maintained at below 2008 levels. Debt assignments are above forecasts this year at the time of writing. Geographically, the business has continued its rapid expansion into the WA market, significantly increasing its share in this growing market in 2009. The business has also expanded its operations capacity to ensure clients are well managed in a challenging environment. The business has responded to the challenges by focusing on core products, strengthening intermediary relationships and improving client service whilst remaining flexible and responsive to the needs of clients.

Despite the uncertainty in global markets, the Australian economy is in a relatively strong position, with business confidence and conditions improving, positive economic growth, inflation remaining low and unemployment peaking at well below official forecasts. The Australian dollar has risen sharply against most major currencies as a result of two consecutive interest rate rises in the second half of 2009 to relieve pressure on inflation. The recovery in the resources sector, driven by improving commodity prices and demand from China and other developing countries has been a significant factor in improving economic conditions. Business insolvency increased significantly in 2009, with the March quarter recording the highest level of failures for many years. As a direct result, the availability of credit insurance has declined, with insurers hesitant to extend limits in the current environment.

Looking forward to 2010, we are optimistic in terms of growth prospects, expecting demand for cashflow products to remain buoyant as a result of continued uncertainty and bank lending restrictions. Credit insurance is also expected to remain tight for the next 12 months. Improvements in general business conditions are also expected to drive a modest increase in demand for growth funding and reduce credit risk. With our geographic expansion, experienced management team, strong introducer partnerships, product mix and specialisation, and leveraging the strength and stability of the Bibby Financial Services Group, Bibby Financial Services Australia is expecting further strong growth and consolidation within
our market.

Greg Charlwood

Chief Executive

KBC Commercial Finance NV

KBC Commercial Finance NV is part of an international financial group (KBC) with its headquarters in Belgium. Our domestic and core market is Belgian-based, our distribution channel is KBC Bank.

Like the rest of the world, the Belgian economy was hit by the worldwide crisis. Expected GDP growth for 2009 is about –3%.

The Belgian financial industry in particular has been rocked by this crisis. This resulted in massive public aid to the sector and a serious transformation of the Belgian financial landscape by the European regulator is in process.

Also the common economy suffered from less turnover, a more restrictive credit policy of the credit insurers, higher margins and more securities requested by the banks and a foundering consumer confidence. As a consequence, 2009 will show a new record in the number of bankruptcies in Belgium.

And despite the fact that people say we are over the worst, uncertainty still reigns.

Taking into account this climate and the strong focus by the banks on RWA (Basel II), commercial finance solutions and, a fortiori, factoring are increasingly regarded as fully fledged alternatives for providing working capital, not only towards smaller companies but also towards companies quoted on the stock market.

With its proven expertise, more than 45 years, in credit management solutions in a B2B environment, KBC Commercial Finance is in a leadership position to offer commercial finance solutions to companies based in Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Using the latest technology and having a dedicated team of employees, we keep our promises. We are a flexible organisation that firmly believes in applying and continually monitoring client-oriented processes to guarantee superior service levels and effective solutions.

Seeking long-term partnerships, KBC Commercial Finance constantly assesses the needs of its clients, some of which have been with us for more than 40 years.

A crisis is always a challenge, but presents, at the same time, an opportunity. This crisis forces organisations to focus on a professional credit management and solid access to working capital.

Exactly what we offer. So we expect a further growth of our business in 2010.

Geert Van Nerum

General Manager

Exicon – Brazil

Concerning 2009 we can say that we have had a great year for the Brazilian economy and for our company as well.

The Brazilian economy has had a modest expansion in 2009 but for 2010 is expected to grow more than 3%.

Due to the solid economic situation, social environment has improved and foreign investment has grown substantially.

From our side, Exicon reinforced its market position, is growing its import factoring business and supply chain finance operation.

2009 was very important for us as we celebrated our 20th anniversary of the company and we can say we have established a strong foundation for sustained growth and profitability.

Robert Kienzle

International Manager

First Factors SA – Chile

The year began for the factoring industry with a not so promising mixture of record high interest rates combined with shrinking internal demand and an increase in the unemployment rate.

With the above description as a mainframe for our business, we saw the fall of all major drives for our economy, commodity prices, such as copper, construction, salmon farming and the lumber industry, so the year did not look good, less activity, hence, fewer invoices to factor. The external markets, which accounts for 60% of the countries GPD was performing worse than the internal front.

The government acted announcing an increase on the budget in order to give dynamism to the economy and the Central Bank started to cut the interest rate, from 8.25% in December 2008 until it reached 0.5% in July.

In the factoring industry, the low interest rate lead to an aggressive race to attract new business and clients, trying to bust the demand by cutting the prices and the spreads, but the reality to face was that there were fewer invoices to factor, provisions went up, due to higher risk and final profits went down. This year the factoring industry will surely face its first turnover downside after more than 10 years of constant and robust growth.

But not everything has been sour for the factoring industry. The rather new law that regulates invoice and credit assignments to factors has proved to be efficient and sufficient in times of trouble, when late payments and disputes tend to rise as the companies struggle in a difficult environment.

Also, prospects are good for 2010, as the last quarter of the year is timidly showing signs of better times as the activity recovers in some areas and stops falling in others. The private credit demand is going up and banks have started to loosen up on their credit policies. The Industrial Activity Indicator (IMACEC) is slowly recovering and though the expectation for this year is to end with a detriment of -1.6%, for next year predictions are for an increase in the range
of 4.5%.

The industrial growth estimated for next year plus low interest rates, as long as inflation does not go up, and the recovery of commodity prices, such as copper and paper pulp, foresee a good year for the factoring industry, with an estimated growth of 30% in turnover compared with 2009.

Fernando González del Riego

Commercial Manager

Bibby Financial Services, a.s.

Bibby Financial Services a.s. currently operates with a staff of 28 motivated professionals located in Brno headquarters, and two Prague and Ostrava offices, responsible for sales in the whole country. Bibby Financial Services, a.s., is the biggest non-banking factoring company in the Czech republic, offering a full range of recourse and non-recourse factoring, export and import factoring, confidential and reverse factoring solutions to SMEs and corporate customers.

Bibby Financial sales growth for 2009 has been 4%, year-on-year compared to 2008, against the Czech factoring market decrease
of 37%.

The international financial crisis has caused serious effects to the stability of the world economy, with a strong impact on the export focused small Czech economy. The Czech manufacturing sector is highly dependent upon car production and construction, both industries having suffered heavily in the global financial crisis. The Czech economy is stable with GDP going up to 6.1% in 2007 before the crises, going down to 2.8% in 2008 and currently in times of crises the GDP falling down to -5.5%.

The factoring turnover of the seven largest factoring companies operating in the Czech market – all members of the Czech Factoring Association – continued to drop in the second half of the year. Total factoring turnover in the first half of 2009 reached 43.8bn CZK (€1,790bn) which is 37.2% less than in the same period in the previous year. In the first quarter of the year the decrease was 36%, which means that the factoring market continues to shrink significantly. Two companies have already quit the market – UniCredit Factoring and DS Factoring, while one company – NLB Factoring – who reported ending its operations at the beginning of this year has since returned to the market. Market leader, Factoring Ceské Sporitelny, also reported that turnover has decreased – down 19.6%, a less marked fall when compared with other market players. Interestingly, there is neither a decrease in the number of clients, nor the number of assigned invoices, but there is a marked decline in the average invoiced sums. These results confirm the fact that factoring remains an important source of financing for small and medium-sized companies and continues to help them survive the global recession.

The biggest challenge we set for this year internally has been to cross from our organisation structure to the new Bibby structure including sales and operation teams as well as change our previous large companies portfolio to the Bibby model well diversifying portfolio of small and mid-sized companies of amount of 250m CZK. We built up internally new company web pages based on the global Bibby platform allowing us to expand our services geographically, modified our business focus to the small and medium-sized enterprises, following the footsteps of Bibby Financial Services and finally hired a new chief operations officer of Bibby Financial Services, a.s. Czech Republic, Michal Gabriel. Externally we are supporting our clients unable to access bank finance in these problematic times, and have focused to continue providing funding to our clients, with excellent quality service and innovative products. We are convinced that now factoring means services for all kinds of businesses and a wide range of innovative financial solutions, as the banking sector becomes much more conservative.

Michal Gabriel

Chief Operations Officer

NLB Factoring a.s.

The company is 100% owned by Nova Ljubljanska banka, d.d. from Slovenia. NLB Factoring was established in 1994. With approximately 10% of the Czech market the company is the largest independent player in the factoring market. It continued to grow rapidly with sales growing over 20% until the end of 2008. After the coming of financial crisis trends have changed.

The Czech Republic is a very export oriented country. The economic downturn evoked the decline of turnover. Many producers lost contracts and orders, or their clients have been in worse credit standing than the year before. These circumstances have had an effect on the factoring business. The Association of Czech Factoring Companies reported falls in turnover of more than 35%. Many companies try to sell doubtful invoices to financial institutions and to the factoring companies as well. Not to discover these invoices are a great threat. Crisis creates new opportunities for new business. Finding these companies are our task and challenge.

Management changed the company strategy. Now we are not concentrating on the rapid growth of turnover. Our priority is more to develop co-operation with our old clients and of course tighten all processes. Our prospects for 2010 are growth at about 10%, profits, and work on transformation to the branch of NLB in the Czech Republic.

For the future we hope, that the Czech economy will adopt the European currency as soon as possible, GDP will grow and that the stability of the world economy will return.

Jaroslav Melichar

General Manager

Bibby Financial Services France

Bibby Financial Services France has offered, since 2005, non-recourse factoring to French SME’s.

Our nationwide sales network includes offices in Aix en Provence, Lyon, Nantes, Paris, and Lille to provide global services at a local scale.

Even though the banking environment has not deteriorated in France as much as in Anglo-Saxon countries, companies’ access to credit has suffered from the lack of cash availability.

BFF grabbed this opportunity to focus on niches neglected by the key players and especially by the banks. In that scope, tailor made factoring solutions targeted at the French SMEs have been developed since the beginning of 2008, offering them more flexibility on limited ledgers than any other operator in France.

This position in the market has proved successful; the turnover factored by BFF has grown from €108m in 2008 up to €140m in 2009. Meanwhile, the number of our customers has gone up from 221 at the end of 2008 to 361 (forecasts) for the end of this year.

Export wise, our SMEs targets are generally too small to dare going abroad which explains the relatively low level of our export ledger.

BFF fragmentation strategy has not only turned us into a reference factor among the non-banking prescribers for companies achieving €0.1m to €1m in sales but has also turned up to be quite protective as far as competition and risk concentration are concerned.

Despite a slackening economy (GDP growth less than 1%), the French factoring market remains buoyant and bank driven. In 2008, the market reached an historical €134bn peak in value, growing by 14.4% as compared to 2007. This represented 31 million invoices discounted over approximately 28,000 companies. These trends are expected to be confirmed in 2009, even if the market has gone down by -6% during the 2009 first semester.

The threats to the market are now coming from the increase in bad debts, an expected record breaking 65,000 companies going bust in 2009.

BFF has grown significantly in 2009 with the recent expansion into Western France to capitalise on opportunities resulting from tightening links with direct marketing specialist brokers. On that occasion a senior sales manager was appointed in Nantes to strengthen local presence.

2009 is expected to be a year of consolidation on a proven business model. With the most experienced management team in France, support and stability of the Bibby Financial Services Group, 2009 should see the French operation continue its strong growth.

Francois D Abzac

Directeur Général

Bibby Financial Services GmbH

Bibby Financial Services GmbH was founded in December 2007 and became fully operational in April 2008. Since launching the business we have seen positive growth and have developed a strong portfolio. We are one the youngest members of the German Factoring Association and position ourselves as the factoring provider for the SME market funding businesses with turnover starting from €500,000 up to €5m.

Bibby Financial Services currently operates in Düsseldorf and in early 2009 a sales office was opened in Munich. Our full service non-recourse solution is provided to clients nationally.

This year has proved a challenging environment for all. We are proud to have remained open for business and redoubled our efforts to support our clients through these difficult and challenging times.

Although, like our competitors we faced difficult economical challenges and turnover of our clients declined by up to 50% we were still able to grow our business by more than double. Thus we were also able to recruit further staff and continued growing the operation.

Like most, we have also faced our clients companies going into liquidation but have been able to keep our bad debts to an acceptable level due to professional risk management and good and timely collection activities.

We have been able to position ourselves as a reliable, strong financial partner who understands its client needs and the long history of the parent has helped to underline this statement. The advantage of being independent from the banking market is well perceived and as a family business we are on the same frequency as our clients and target market. We offer flexible funding solutions in the area of factoring and focusing on solutions rather than offering standard products. This approach is highly appreciated by our clients where client satisfaction remains high.

Although Germany was one of the first economies to technically get out of the recession in mid 2009 businesses are still suffering from the effect of the recession. It is expected that Germany will see in the region of 30,000 companies going into insolvency until the end of the year. That’s the reason why some businesses are still very reluctant to make plans for the future and make decisions for growing their business.

As Germany is a world leader in export the worldwide recession has hit the local economy hard. However we are seeing from a lot of our clients increasing sales and this indicates that Germany is developing in the right direction. The new government under CDU and FDP has now to prove that they will be able to implement the right tools to support businesses and stabilise
the economy.

The credit insurance market is also suffering and some suppliers have heavily reduced credit limits. This has a massive impact on the German factoring industry as Germany operates with a non-recourse product only. However our cooperation was able to maintain limits on an appropriate level.

Since the end of December 2008 factoring became regulated in Germany and is now supervised by the banking authorities (BaFin). Certain reporting and requirements need to be fulfilled especially the minimum requirements of risk management (MaRisk) but the supervision is more defined as light compared to the obligations for banks.

The banks are still risk averse which gives good opportunities to grow the factoring product in the market. Nevertheless one of the main challenges is finding the right clients for the factoring product. Lead generation remains difficult as there is still uncertainty in the market and competition is high. Nevertheless due to the financial crisis which has hit the banks especially hard and due to the supervision we expect a consolidation of the German factoring market; some players to stop their activities and disappear from the German market.

We are very confident and optimistic that we will continue our growth in the German market in 2010 and become the funding partner for the SME segment and create positive market recognition. We will keep our flexible approach and seek out opportunities when looking to expand and develop new products.

Jörg Freialdenhoven

Managing Director

GE Capital Bank Germany

Since its integration into GE more than four years ago, GE Capital Bank has grown in sales, number of employees and offices.

In 2008, GE Capital Bank reported its best year ever with a factored volume of more than €22bn. GE Capital Germany CEO Joachim Secker is confident the bank will be able to repeat 2008’s success. But due to the global credit crisis the German factoring business in 2009 decreased and the volume is lower than the year before. So the credit crunch had and still has a large impact on the factoring business and the whole economy. For 2009 GE Capital Bank estimates a downturn but they still expect a further double-digit growth for 2010 and going forward.

Joachim also expects a tough year-end for 2009 and 2010, because there will be a lot of new regulations implemented which were decided by the national governments. Currently the whole banking and finance sector implements the
new processes and regulations and to wait to
see how all the new effects will influence the banking system.

In addition GE Capital Bank is part of GE Capital Germany, a German-wide financing platform, which includes fleet management and equipment financing. The advantage of creating such a platform is that this will be a consistent market presence for corporate financing.

Since GE completed the full acquisition of GE Capital Bank in 2005, the Mainz-based bank has expanded its workforce, benefiting the Mainz area. The number of employees has risen from 130 to 200 and the volume has more than tripled. GE Capital Bank takes on eight apprentices each year and many of these go on to assume full-time positions in the bank.

GE Capital Bank also expanded its branch presence throughout Germany and Austria in 2008. GE Capital opened new offices in Hanover and Stuttgart, extending its network through northern and southern Germany and adding to those already in Düsseldorf, Munich, Hamburg and Leipzig. Furthermore GE Capital Bank opened a branch in Austria, Vienna. The expanding office network will help GE Capital adopt a more local approach and win new customers. The offices will be staffed by locals from the regions, important in Germany and Austria where there are regional differences in dialect, cultural habits and ways of doing business.

Joachim Secker

CEO

Bibby Financial Services India

Bibby Financial Services India commenced operations in February 2008 and is now in the second year of business operations. Part of the UK-based Bibby Financial Services group, we presently offer domestic factoring to SME and mid-sized corporates. Operating from Gurgaon, near New Delhi we service clients nationally but are presently more focused on north and east Indian markets.

The year 2009 began with the global credit crisis at its peak. It led to significant liquidity problems with major banks and NBFCs reducing credit approvals. As a result of the demand slump, GDP growth slowed down from around 7% in 2008 to 6% (Q1 2009). The most severe impact of the global crises has been on export growth which deteriorated from a growth of 40% in Q2 of 2008-09 to a growth of -30% in Q1 of 2009-10. India’s banking regulator, the Reserve Bank of India stepped in with a range of measures to improve liquidity and business confidence. As a result, at the time of writing, the Indian economy is witnessing speedy recovery with capital markets, the manufacturing sector and credit take-off showing significant growth.

Bibby Financial Services has shown robust growth despite the uncertain economic environment for a good part of the year. The sales growth is projected to triple by the end of 2009 over 2008. The pre-payment outstanding is also likely to grow at 60-70% over 2008. We are in the process of strengthening and consolidating our distribution network for new business acquisition and the results are beginning to show.

The current year has also witnessed some changes in the factoring services providers’ approach which is based on the learning’s derived during the credit crisis with emphasis now being on superior client profile for recourse factoring products. New non-banking finance companies have gained prominence to fill up the space. Finance companies promoted by a few large manufacturers have become significant providers of vendor finance or reverse factoring to suppliers of these large corporates. The vast and growing Indian market continues to present opportunities for factoring players particularly with government spend on infrastructure increasing rapidly.

We expect the year 2010 to be a year of revival of the economy including exports which are still lagging behind. Increased investment in corporate projects which were put on hold will generate credit demand and certainly factoring and invoice discounting solutions will strive to take a share of this business.

With almost two years of operational experience and an experienced team, we are poised to achieve continued business growth in India during 2010.

Vikas Nanda

Managing Director

PT.IFS Capital Indonesia – Jakarta

In the next five years, the re-elected president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has a clear vision and mission on how to improve the economic growth and strengthen further the
national stability.

Indonesia’s macroeconomic performance in Q1-Q3 of 2009 reflected ongoing progress in the economic recovery. Economic growth improved supported by stable monetary and financial conditions. Indonesia’s economy is holding up very well in spite of the global turmoil. The economy grew by a real 4.0% year-on-year in Q2 2009, barely slowing from 4.4% growth registered in the preceding quarter and vastly outperforming its regional peers. On account of the strong economic performance in early 2009, Indonesia has revised up the forecast of real GDP growth for 2009 from 3.6% to 4.5%, and for 2010, from 4.6% to 4.8%.

Supported by strong domestic demands, increasing government spending and stable security and political conditions, Indonesia’s economic growth is projected to reach 6% in 2010. Indonesia’s improving growth in the following years would be greatly affected by the global economy that started to recover from the crisis that has been occurring since last year.

Indonesia’s economic recovery has started in the last few months with indicators seen in the increasing sales of motorcycles, household electricity and cements in the domestic market. With less dependence on export, Indonesian economic growth would be one of the highest in Asian economies other than China and India, the two Asia’s emerging economy countries. Furthermore, the government estimated that Indonesia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth would reach 4.5% this year and will continue to increase to about 5% to 5.5% in 2010.

PT IFS Capital Indonesia offers a wide variety of attractive financing solutions, from factoring to financial lease, targeting its products at small and medium-sized companies.

In terms of volume, PT IFS Capital Indonesia will account for over US$20m in lending during 2009, and total income expected to gain about US$0.7m or more than 300% growth compared to last year.

2010 is anticipated to be another milestone year for PT IFS Capital Indonesia to be an innovative major player in factoring and also in equipment financing for our clients, committed to service excellence, and to create value for shareholders, management and staff.

Dani Firmansjah

CEO

Bibby Financial Services Ireland

The company was incorporated in May 2006 and from a standing start has succeeded in building a portfolio of 150 disclosed factoring clients in what has traditionally been a confidential
invoice discounting market dominated by bank-owned players.

The challenges have been considerable not least of which has been overcoming the legacy stigma attached to factoring. Additionally whilst language and open borders are common with the UK, culturally there remain big differences. The accounting standards and legal framework are similar to the UK but the legal process is under resourced and extremely slow by comparison and the insolvency rules are more like the UK system of 20 years ago.

Niche markets have been created particularly for new start companies and steady progress has been made with 2009 being a record year for client numbers, debts factored and income. The economic and banking crisis has affected Ireland more severely than most EU countries. This has meant that the bank-owned invoice discounters have effectively been closed for business. With no such restrictions on our own funding we have been able to take advantage of the lack of liquidity elsewhere and have attracted larger clients who have been declined or discarded by the bank providers in this current climate. This has resulted in year-on-year growth of 22% in client numbers.

BFS (Ireland) has also extended its reach into Northern Ireland by establishing a sales office in Belfast and progresses to become a whole Ireland provider. We are well positioned to take advantage of the increasing cross-border trade flows between the province and the republic which are encouraged by the relative weakness of sterling and the euro.

The momentum built in 2009 looks to be carrying forward into 2010 with little indication that the Irish banks have an appetite to rush back into the SME confidential invoice discounting market offering facilities at rock bottom prices as has been the case in previous years.

Martin Warman,

Managing Director

GE Capital

GE Capital’s Italian factoring operation is a 100% subsidiary of GE, offering customised solutions for the management and financing of receivables primarily to Italian SMEs. The company has been operating in the Italian market for more than 20 years and is now amongst the leading independent (non-bank) factoring companies in the industry. This vast experience, enhanced by GE’s industrial foundation, make it a unique partner for companies in search of working capital solutions, as well as companies looking for rapid domestic and international growth. GE is a founding member of Assifact, the Italian Factoring Association, and is a member of Factors Chain International as well as the IFG, the leading international factoring networks.

The current financial crisis and the difficulties that most companies are facing in accessing funds have led to an increase in late payments and, subsequently, to a rise in insolvencies. This has increased the demand for receivables finance and, particularly, non-recourse factoring. Currently, almost 80% of Italian companies that use receivables finance opt for a form of non-recourse factoring.

Furthermore, the risk of missed payments or increased days outstanding of invoice payment has become progressively more marked. This has a negative impact on companies’ performance indicators, making a further case for non-recourse solutions.

As a result of companies’ increasing demand for cashflow, factoring remains an important instrument of liquidity. Being one of the leading players in the global financial market, GE has a unique capability to support companies through the cycle: the difficult economic situation compels us to apply strong selective criteria in the assessment of risk parameters and ensure that we continue to serve our customers while protecting shareholder value.

Looking ahead, it is likely that the economic situation will not radically improve within the next few months. GE Capital remains committed to the Italian and European market, while
continuing to be a responsible lender, managing our risk fundamentals, correctly pricing our offer, and marketing flexible products to different customer segments.

At a time when many small and mid-market companies are struggling to access finance, factoring represents a vital source of working capital – our commitment to the Italian market is stronger and more relevant during the
down cycle.

Paolo Braghieri

CEO

Ifitalia

The Italian factoring market is presently showing a decreasing turnover, but Ifitalia will probably close the year with a turnover in line with expectations, that is at the same level as 2008, about €22bn. Moreover, in 2009 Ifitalia has adopted successful strategies to boost the profitability of the business, which is expected to increase.

More than 70% of the turnover of the year was assigned on a non-recourse basis. Currently, Ifitalia ranks second in the Italian market, the third largest factoring market in the world. The company employs about 300 people.

The general economic situation in Italy remains critical, as in the rest of EU countries. However, credit risk and the relative cost are at the same level as 2008. On the other hand, the market conditions have opened new opportunities for factoring companies due to the conservative attitude of banks and insurance companies and because of the intrinsic characteristics of factoring services, which can provide effective solutions for reducing risks.

The uncertainties connected with future economic scenarios make it hard to predict next years market trend. Anyway, in 2010 the Italian market is likely to remain substantially stable in terms of volume of transactions. Ifitalia expects a slight growth in turnover and a further improvement in gross margin.

Ifitalia will maintain its market leadership position and its market share near to 20% in 2010 and will continue to be a provider of effective and efficient factoring services in both domestic and international markets.

Massimo Ferraris

General Manager

Lock Finance Auckland

New Zealand is also known by its other Maori name, Aotearoa, which means "The Land of the Long White Cloud". However for the past year, with the economic conditions that existed, many could be forgiven for changing that colour to a darker shade. Business failures have increased, unemployment has doubled from 4% to 8% and the finance sector in particular has been under siege with many private sector companies failing. Overall the storm has probably not been as savage as elsewhere but in a small market it is still significant.

Factoring does not have a large presence in the local market. Only one of the five major banks has an invoice discounting product. Lock Finance and other privately-owned finance companies are active in both invoice discounting and traditional factoring but overall these products have quite low market share of the overall lending market and the activity has been almost exclusively domestic. The products are still not well understood by the market and the traditional Kiwi do it yourself attitude means that in a small market they are especially reluctant to hand over debtor contact to factoring companies. Lock Finance has maintained a policy of having additional trade finance and inventory finance products to complement the factoring range.

For us 2009 was a challenging year. We have taken some steps to cut overheads and the balance sheet has reduced slightly, but with strong shareholder support we now have a very solid platform and believe we are well placed for new business opportunities and modest growth which we believe will occur in 2010.

Simon Thompson

CEO

Bibby Financial Services Poland

Since its launch in 2002, Bibby Financial Services Poland has focused our pioneer offering of factoring products for small and medium enterprises. Being a part of the Bibby Financial Services Group we can deliver our clients a comprehensive service regardless of where their trading partners are. Starting with solely recourse factoring solutions, over seven years of our activity we built a portfolio of products: apart from recourse factoring, we may assist companies offering non-recourse factoring, export factoring – directly, using our group global presence and within the IFG two-factor scheme and receivables management. Bibby Financial Services operates in Warsaw, with two other sales locations in Katowice and Poznan and services clients nationally.

In 2009 the market was difficult, mainly due to the changing situation of many healthy businesses. Despite the fact that macroeconomics indexes gave a positive picture, the statistics show growing problems with cashflow on a micro level. Over 90% of companies didn’t pay invoices on time. In the first half of 2009 the amount of overdue receivables was higher than 160% compared to the same period in 2008. Also the number of bankruptcies doubled in this period compared to the first half of 2008. Over 70% of companies declared that lack of payments on time caused the main barrier in their development. If we add to this picture re-insurers unwillingness to grant credit limits, big suppliers reducing credits for their buyers, and more restrictive bank policies regarding granting funding, we may see that carrying on business activity was not easy for entrepreneurs from the SME sector in Poland in 2009.

Within this background, Bibby Financial Services Poland kept offering solutions for cashflow problems for SME companies, growing its market share in terms of turnover (from 2% to nearly 3%) and in terms of client and debtors serviced (reaching 12% and 8% respectively).

We may see that the difficult times left entrepreneurs, also those from the SME sector, more aware of the significance of prevention, of receivables management, of developing the right tools to avoid cashflow problems and to avoid costly and destroying legal collections. However, the challenge is that still over 80% of SMEs have little awareness of factoring services. In 2010 we will continue to educate the market, to cooperate with introducers, to build strong teams to offer excellent solutions that will help Polish businesses to develop their business. We expect that by having global support and local knowledge we experience further growth of our business.

Krzysztof Kuniewicz

Managing Director

Pekao Faktoring

Established in 1998 Pekao Faktoring are pioneers of the factoring industry in Poland and the biggest factoring company in Poland. Since 2000 we have consistently dominated the market. In 2008 the company factored receivables to a value of €1.3bn. Such a result represents 15.8% of the market total. After Q3 2009 the company’s turnover totalled €0.85bn. At the present moment 16.3% of the Polish market belongs to Pekao Faktoring.

It is a very good score, gained in difficult, turbulent times.

Servicing factoring utilities across 11 years Pekao Faktoring purchased the receivables of €8.4bn. That represents 25.1% of turnover of the Polish factoring industry total within these years. I repeat, quarter of the industry’s turnover.

Pekao Faktoring is a strong creator of the factoring market. The company is the initiator of the Polish Factors Association and draws the directions of the industry’s development.

Pekao Faktoring is a partner for renowned international factors. As a member of International Factors Group and Factors Chain International we are ranked in the top positions. In the International Factors Group’s ranking for 2008 we took:

Fifth – regarding the volume of export transactions;

Sixth – regarding the quality service of export transactions;

Second – regarding the improvement of the quality service of export transactions, and

Fourth – regarding the growth of import transactions.

Such positions evidence the fact that Pekao Faktoring is one of the best factoring companies in Central-East Europe. We are active in international arenas, two of Pekao Faktoring’s crew work on constant agendas of the IFGroup.

Pekao Faktoring’s strength is built on perfect knowledge of the market’s demands, experience gained in thousands of businesses and an efficient IT platform. The model of staff development we practice is unique. Many of specialists working at the moment in Polish factoring companies began their career path from Pekao Faktoring.

Factoring turnover must be much lower than the record result of 2008, totalled €8bn – the best ever, the experts forecasted after Q1 2009. No one could foresee how deep the crisis in the financial sector might be, nor predict the impact of the recession. Today we are sure, factoring turnover in 2009 must be lower than a year ago.

At the end of Q3 2009 the turnover of the leading factoring companies totalled €5.1bn, 13% less year-on-year. Not so bad, observing the scores gained within two quarters of 2009, I see the diminution process grew weaker. The slowdown in the factoring industry was generated mainly by the worsening exposure of some sectors, namely steel production and distribution and construction and growing risk on portfolio quality. The decreasing activity of businesses in general was for major players also conscious. But, on the other hand factors were in a much better situation than other businesses of the financial sector, e.g. leasing dropped at 35% year-on-year. The current situation on the factoring market in Q4 looks better. All the Polish factors see the extinguishing of the declining tendency. Industry is far from weighty regress and the volume of factoring turnover swells. The measurable symptoms of recovery come just from steel and the motor industry, these branches do the dominating part of the client’s portfolio, it is 32.4% of the total. The same happens in the construction sector and the internal demand keeps on quite a high level.

Sharing these observations and facts one must remember that the factoring industry must feel the effects of the restrictive banks’ policy, i.e. by conservative practice by decreasing credit limits. As such, the policy rebounds directly on the realised sales volume, core business
for factors.

Polish factoring industry turns right now. For the first time in its’ history, it’s only 15 years old, non-recourse factoring services overbalanced the recourse factoring facilities. It is just more evidence that the climate for factoring in Poland gets better.

Let’s go to the conclusion then. The real recovery for the industry and surpass the record result of 2008 may come at the end of 2010, if only the second wave of the global crisis doesn’t hit us earlier in the year.

Mirosław Jakowiecki

CEO and Chairman

Eurofactor Portugal

Despite the current global economic situation, Eurofactor Portugal maintains a growth rate close to two digits, with a 9% increase in turnover in 2008.

In 2009 it is expected that growth in activity will remain at 2008 levels.

The year 2009, remained dominated by the recessionary environment that has affected the world economy following the financial crisis that had its beginning in 2007.

Portugal is a small and very open economy strongly affected by international economics (positive or negative) and with a big internal constraint that is the public debt that is undermining the ability to grow, with very tight taxes and public expenditure policies and a big challenge to dealing with an unemployment rate of 9.5% in 2009.

The factoring industry in Portugal grew up strongly in volume based on public debtors and the building industry, but now the market is facing maturity and the end of this growing cycle.

In order to succeed all players will try to be more competitive in pricing and explore new products and markets, with a strict control of operational risk management.

Being part of Crédit Agricole Group helps Eurofactor Portugal to proceed as the market leader in the international business but now we will probably face increased competition in
this area.

Eurofactor Portugal still maintains a team of 30 people, mainly young and specialised people in the factoring business and collection processes, covering operations and clients, sales and marketing, international business, risk management, financial and IT.

Our headquarters is located in Lisbon and we have a delegation in Oporto, with a commercial team to support sales in the north of Portugal.

For 2010, we all believe that will see the beginning of economic and financial recovery (perhaps a slow one) for the most important countries in Europe and all over the world, which can lead to more international and domestic business in the factoring market.

In a competitive domestic market, we have to be ready to deal with the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities.

Rui Esteves

General Manager

JSCB Metallinvestbank

The year 2009 is an excellent example of mixed emotions. On the one hand we’ve got a constant flow of new customers, for many of them factoring is the only source of liquidity available. On the other hand a number of old clients turned out to feed the bank with fresh air invoices, and you find out that sometimes every lawyer from the legal department is in court for the full day.

The economic situation is still getting worse. Government measures are focused to save big players. But factoring is an instrument for small and medium-sized enterprises. Here in Russia the most help was received from government or state banks by big players, the less ready the big players paid to its small suppliers. Most of the default cases look strange from an outside view. We’ve got default debtors receiving government help and investment grade from the rating agency and its supplier suffering from debtor non-payment. If we bring this case to court, we will eventually get back our money, but the supplier will never have an opportunity to do business with this client.

Altogether we’ve got very modest growth in our total portfolio. But at the same time we’ve got impressive growth (40%) in turnover due to refreshing of clients base.

The labour market is in a terrible condition and it is much easier to find necessary people than a year ago. But in 2010 we expect the labour market to recover. So for year 2010 the greatest challenge will be to reach higher profitability and to hold on to personnel.

Michael Okunev

Head of Banking Department

National Factoring Company JSC

Russia goes through the crisis worse than most of the leading world economies and apparently recovery will require more time. Due to the oil price increase in the third quarter the Russian economy has demonstrated insignificant growth of about 2%. However the decrease of GDP from January till September 2009 has constituted about 10%. The annual GDP forecast remains vague because a number of industries are still suffering from the consumer demand decrease and the reduction of credit facilities. GDP is expected to decrease about 8% in 2009. At the same time the growth of the Russian economy is being predicted at about 3.5% next year.

The factoring industry has also followed this negative trend. According to the Russian rating agency, Expert RA, the factoring turnover registered for the first six months of 2009 was €4bn, which represents a 50% turnover drop compared to the same period of the previous year. The main causes of such a sharp fall are the decrease in the number of businesses selling on credit terms, the decline of the factorable industries and the collapse of the factoring company Eurokommerz, which accounted for almost one quarter of the
market turnover.

The good news is that apparently the Russian factoring market has learned some lessons and risk-management is now paid considerably greater attention – nobody wants to follow the sad path of the ex-market leader. The repeal of the legal requirement for factors to operate under a license became one of the key industry events in 2009. The growing importance of the Association of Factoring Companies, which became a real forum for the Russian factors, will further contribute to the development of the market.

The National Factoring Company, the founder of the Russian factoring market, celebrated its 10 year anniversary. Since 1999 the factoring department of then NIKoil IBG Bank consisting of six people has grown into an independent factoring bank, offering a full range of factoring services. The NFC team has now more than 350 employees in 22 branches from Kaliningrad to Krasnoyarsk. NFC has met all commitments towards its creditors, in particular in May the company settled an investor put option on a bond issue. In order to minimise possible losses, in addition to regular risk-management procedures, a decision was taken to carry out an internal clients` audit and selection which led to a number of contract terminations. The vast majority of clients decreased their turnover sometimes up to 40-50% which resulted in less appetite for factoring financing. Generally the market situation can be described as too much money chasing too few clients.

Hopefully the economic growth will resume next year and that will lead to the growth of the Russian factoring industry which provides financial resources, credit risk protection and account receivables management to the majority of leading industries such as production and wholesale of food and beverages, construction and finishing materials, metallurgy and manufacturing.

Corneliu Robu

Board Member

Russian Factoring Company

The Russian Factoring Company is almost a new-born being founded in the summer of 2008. Market operations started in December last year. There is no better time to start than in the crisis time given to you to pay all the attention to risk management and monitoring of market changes.

The company was founded by people who have 15 years’ experience in banking. 80% of management originates from the Russian Development Bank which was ranked thirtieth last year in Russia’s private deposits.

The Russian Development Bank was one of the leading service-oriented commercial banks in the country, specialising in whole and retail trade with a deep understanding in these fields of business.

In the third quarter the Russian Factoring Company has financed more than 1,400 deliveries with a payment delay. The cumulative turnover on factoring operations figured up to 928.3m RUR (USD 30.9m) that is twice as much as in second quarter 2009.

The total sum of the paid financing within the limits of service factoring with recourse, an immediate replenishment of current assets any day after presenting the dispatching documents has made 765.3m RUR (USD 25.5m).

The St Petersburg representation office became the first in frameworks of development of a regional network of the Russian Factoring Company.

The representation renders to clients a full complex of factoring services:

Future plans:

Elena Gladkih

CEO

VTB Factoring Ltd – Russia

The Russian economy as practically any other in the world was influenced by the global financial crisis. And factoring was not an exception. Compared with the same period of 2008 the share of Russian factoring decreased by 33%. The number of new clients is twice less. However in some industries (e.g. FMCG wholesale) the competition for clients got intense. Factoring companies started to estimate the risks more strictly and at the same time lowered the annual rate for services from 30-38%, at the beginning of 2009, down to 20-23% on average. The crisis entailed market repositioning in favour of the banks. Depending on the volume of the assigned claims the share of the banks grew from 65% in the first half of 2008 up to 88% for the same period of 2009, according to Expert RA. In the second half of 2009 the revival of the factoring market has started, and the turnovers and portfolios of the main participants have started to grow as well.

We are optimistic about the future and think that next year, if the situation in the global financial system is the same as it is now, the factoring market will be gaining momentum and by the end of 2010 the increase will be not less than 20%.

Crisis is not only the time of decline in economy but also the time for new possibilities. It is the right moment for the new players to use the competitive advantages and enter the market. It was the very moment when VTB Factoring Ltd started operating.

VTB Factoring Ltd is a subsidiary of JSC VTB Bank, one of the biggest financial institutions
in Russia.

Group VTB is the first Russian international financial group representing Russia on the international markets and rendering professional financial services.

Despite the fact that our company is very young the number of clients increases steadily and the monthly turnover grows.

Now more than 50 active clients are being financed with VTB Factoring, and the turnover has exceeded €70m.

We aim to develop factoring throughout the country and plan to offer international factoring too.

VTB Factoring has been an IFG member since August 2009.

This is a momentous event for us because in order to reach the set goals, VTB Factoring will require not only the efforts of the company staff but also cooperation with IFG both for the development of the international factoring and for professional skills training.

We are confident that factoring in Russia will be developing steadily and we will try to promote this process actively.

Dmitry Pyatakov

CEO

Tunisie Factoring

In Tunisia, if the banking sector has been spared by the worldwide financial crisis, it did not avoid the effects of the fall of activity which affected the main sectors as the exportation of goods or services; let’s remember that 80% of Tunisian’s orders come from European companies, and essentially French companies.

The consequence of this situation left the banking sector in 2008 with an excess of liquidity because of lack of investments, and lack of short-term financing needs of the companies. In such context the monetary authorities have decided to lower the required reserve ratio in order to meet the needs of Tunisian companies during this sensitive period.

Tunisie Factoring (TF) is the first independent factoring company in the local market with nearly 13 years’ experience in the business, maintaining 65% of market share. In 2009, Tunisie Factoring’s turnover scored 325m dinars (about €169m), which represents 8% growth compared to the previous year.

Fitch Rating has affirmed Tunisie Factoring’s national long-term rating at BBB (tun) and national short-term rating at F3 (tun); the outlook for the national long-term rating is stable.

The assets of TF are healthy, and the non-performing loans (NPL) have not exceeded 4% over 10 years.

A staff of 42 people are based at our Tunis headquarters, Tunisie Factoring have three branches: Tunis, Sousse and Sfax, the whole group is highly motivated and working for our company success.

Tunisie Factoring is part of TLG group (Tunisie Leasing group). In 1984 it started leasing activity, then developed factoring activity, through Tunisie Factoring, and the full leasing service.

Our group has been based for the last four years in Algeria for leasing business, which has a 25% market share; our subsidiary in Algeria plans to develop the factoring business.

All Tunisie factoring’s team is involved in the settlement of the new information system which will start in the end of 2010.

The biggest challenge for 2010 is our domestic and international activity, to continue to provide funding to our clients, with an excellent quality of services and innovative products and to increase our international factoring relationships with our partners, members of IF Group.

Mohamed Bouraoui

Managing Director

Garanti Factoring Turkey

Despite the turbulence prevailing in the markets, the Turkish economy has been resilient with a strongly capitalised and well regulated banking sector which is relatively less affected from the credit crunch unlike its peers in Europe and the US. Notwithstanding this, Turkey’s economy has not been immune from global financial turmoil. The economy is expected to contract by 5-6% in 2009 and the forecast for 2010 is a positive growth rate of approximately 3%. The anticipated inflation rate will be around 6% at year end which remains below expectations. The Central Bank of Turkey has steadily cut down overnight interest rates from the levels of 15% to 6.75% throughout 2009 and the rate is expected to remain at these levels for the medium-term. The export volume of Turkey has contracted by roughly 30% in the first 10 months of 2009 as compared to the same period of 2008. However we have seen an upward trend in October with 5% growth in exports as compared to October 2008.

In times of a challenging environment in 2009 with the global financial crises kicking in, the factoring industry contracted by 25% in the first half of 2009 however the declining trend has slowed down as we recently started to see a bounce back in the market. We expect the industry to shrink by 5-10% by year end.

In 2008, the factoring industry grew by 1% compared to 2007 and turnover reached USD 27.2bn. The ratio of the factoring volume to GDP has been consistently increasing in Turkey for years. Factoring industry accounts for 3% of GDP as of end 2008. The biggest growth continues to be driven from domestic factoring with a transaction volume of USD 23.8bn representing 87% of total industry volume. International factoring reached a volume of USD 3.4bn which is mainly generated from export business. Turkey has been playing a significant role in the international export factoring arena and ranks second in two-factor export business after China in the first place.

Factoring companies are going to retrieve a healthier legal infrastructure after completion of current efforts of the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA) to pass legislation through parliament. The new legal framework will contribute to the development of industry in terms of more institutional and stabilised structure with regards to both legal and operational matters as well as preparing for international compliance and standards to operate competitively.

Garanti Factoring enjoys a strong shareholder structure and a powerful brand name in Turkey being a subsidiary of Garanti Bank. Through close co-operation and synergy with the parent bank, Garanti Factoring is able to utilise an extensive distribution channel to penetrate into an increasing customer base nationwide and capitalise on commercial banking expertise. The in-house credit approval process is undertaken on both a seller and debtor basis in line with a strong credit policy approach. Garanti Factoring is a major player in the sector by offering international factoring services including two factor export business. In addition to export business, Garanti Factoring is also active in import business offering collection as well as full service for the buyers in the Turkish market capitalising on Garanti Group’s strengths in distribution capability, client history, commercial banking expertise and quick internal credit appraisal process. Garanti Factoring offers these international factoring products via both chains in the industry. Garanti Factoring is the first and only Turkish factoring company that enjoys being a member of both International Factors Group (IFG) and Factors Chain International (FCI). As the CEO of Garanti Factoring, I have recently been elected as the Chairman of IFG.

Garanti Factoring increased earnings by 41%, with net profit reaching 7.6m TL as of third quarter 2009. The positive trend of profitability and market share is the result of increasing market penetration and client satisfaction by meeting their various needs through a wide range innovative product set and a speedy service level. Despite the recent financial turmoil around the world Garanti Factoring has successfully achieved a leading position with USD 3.67bn turnover in the sector through its stability, flexibility, responsiveness to client needs and commitment to its outstanding service quality.

Our customer base mainly consists of SMEs. In spite of falling turnover during the turmoil, the number of customers has been boosted because the sector has been trying to spread geographically for years. In the current economic climate, demand for factoring increased with tightening of bank credit. Factoring is a financial and credit service which provides the most convenient solution to solve exporters and importers needs particularly for SMEs to boost and facilitate their commercial growth thus resulting in domestic and international sales.

Cengiz Üçbasaran

CEO

Bibby Financial Services UK

Bibby Financial Services (BFS) is having a good 2009 which is proving to be a record year for the number of new export factoring clients taken on and export debts factored. Headline growth of 11% year-on-year has been achieved despite the savagery of the global recession. Larger than usual clients have been attracted as our competitors, particularly the bank-owned players have retrenched and other competitors such as GMAC have exited the market altogether. Increasingly we are seeing that we are becoming the first choice provider for export factoring in the UK, a reputation no doubt enhanced by our own global network.

The weakness of sterling against the euro is having some interesting effects as the UK becomes a lower cost-base compared with the euro zone. Apart from the obvious effect of making UK exports more competitive we are seeing some manufacturing which had previously been off shored to the euro zone being returned to the UK. The lack of funding availability in the euro zone has also attracted a number of businesses to establish UK trading companies and thereby access financial assistance from Bibby Financial Services even though the manufacturing site remains in the euro zone.

The prospects for 2010 look good given the continuing relative weakness of sterling and the increasing demand as the euro zone climbs out of recession ahead of the UK. We also foresee an increasing demand for traditional trade finance facilities as the demand from UK importers
picks up.

Martin Warman

Managing Director

Crédit Agricole Commercial Finance

Whilst retaining our legal entity, being a wholly-owned company within the Crédit Agricole Group we have re-branded and now proudly call ourselves Crédit Agricole Commercial Finance and this name now appears in all our communications. Our group is amongst the worlds largest in banking terms with a presence in more than 20 countries with over 58 million customers.

Through support and investment from our group and the recruitment of some considerably experienced personnel over the last two to three years our presence and standing in the UK in all our operations has seen market-beating growth, the last 12 months alone, providing advances to clients increasing by 70%. A magnificent achievement weighed against a market fall generally of minus 17%.

The impact of negative insurance underwriting is still having an effect on volumes from international business. 2009 has followed very much on the back of 2008 with insurer’s reluctant to approve cover on sectors where imports are an integral element. The retail market, amongst others, has been particularly adversely affected with insurers reticent in expanding or creating new commitment. However, we have the credit insurance expertise in our team which can and has brought positive results with both export and import factor operating together within the IFG family.

By joint action and the prompt provision of financial data, working in unison, provides at the very least a platform that can be built upon that may achieve the eventual granting of cover. Our goal for 2010 is to prudently and diligently grow our book both domestically and internationally using our vast array of products and know-how and by being known henceforth as Crédit Agricole Commercial Finance will further enhance our reputation as a constant and leading provider of financial and financial support services.

Richard Hall

International and Credit Manager

This time last year the UK economy was staring into a void, uncertainty was abundant and confidence at an all time low. Beleaguered businesses were facing many headwinds associated with an ever-declining economy. Now, whilst the UK strives to recover from the recession, confidence appears to be returning in a cautious, yet steady manner.

Last year’s disruption in the financial markets presented us with a variety of difficult challenges – challenges which tested our creativity, determination and customer service. We have not ignored what is happening in our markets and we continue to respond decisively. As a result, GE Capital is well positioned to serve the UK factoring market for 2010 and beyond. We are firmly optimistic about the future, we have the capital available to deploy, an appetite for new business and the capacity to execute. Our aim is to deliver a consistent, high level of service to our customers and introducers in order to make GE Capital the factoring provider of choice.

Historically, one of GE Capital’s core products in the UK has been factoring. With 30 years’ experience in this market we have stability, commitment and an in-depth product understanding. As a leading independent player in the market we have an exemplary track record for credit and product management. Our best-in-class service levels and focus on innovation are integral to helping our customers run their businesses effectively.

As defaults, insolvencies and bankruptcies continue and as companies focus on maintaining their cashflow in the face of declining consumer and business consumption, it has never been more important for us to remain committed to and support our customers and introducers and to be flexible when they need us.

John Jenkins

CEO

Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance

Without a doubt, 2009 has been an incredible year to be involved in finance and specifically in ABL. The old Chinese curse "may you live in interesting times" comes to mind.

Although we are primarily known as a market leader in the UK we also have operations in Belgium, France, Germany, The Republic of Ireland, The Netherlands, Spain and the USA – all markets that have been impacted by the financial crisis.

Our staff in the UK and overseas have performed brilliantly. They have managed increased levels of new business alongside our existing portfolio. And we can also look back on the successful integration of our division with BoS Cashflow Finance, the ABL subsidiary of HBOS.

The past year has been a particularly tough for smaller businesses while mid-market corporates who have been able to reduce costs, sell assets and divest of subsidiaries to support the core business have fared better. As such, we have seen a shift in the profile of businesses seeking to use ABL, and a flow of deals which demonstrate ABL’s credibility as a financing tool.

In addition, venture capital and private equity houses are increasingly identifying asset-based finance as part of the solution for businesses needing to restructure their facilities. This is enabling us to support even relatively debt free businesses with great products and management teams within the UK and overseas.

With these trends continuing, 2010 will be another interesting year. We look forward to working with and learning from our colleagues in IFG and we will continue to support IFG’s various education programmes. We thank Erik and his great team for their past work and future efforts and although we do not have plans to re-enter the two-factor system we will continue to support countless cross-border and traditional direct export clients.

We have all heard the old adage that more businesses fail on the way out of recession than on the way in. Today, for the first time coming out of a recession, with more businesses using ABL, SMEs are in a strong position as invoice discounting and factoring has increased in importance relative to traditional overdrafts in the UK. We hope, therefore, that the flexibility afforded by ABL will enable many more businesses to prosper as their ABL working capital facilities are tied to the growth of their current asset base.

We will continue to invest in client service, monitoring, improved systems and procedures to ensure we’re able to use ABL to support business both here and abroad in 2010 and beyond. And while we like a challenge, a bit less excitement and interesting times would be very welcome.

Simon Featherstone

Managing Director

Venture Finance

The recession has been indiscriminate in the way it has challenged UK businesses. It is only now that we are beginning to see evidence of an upturn within the economy and the stabilisation of certain sectors.

This year has also been our 20th anniversary. For us that has meant recognising the journey that our industry has been on since we began operating, and looking ahead to the next 20 years. The publication of our: The Evolution of Invoice and Asset Based Lending white paper, demonstrates how far the industry has come and outlines the path we need to tread to become respected as a mainstream form of funding.

At Venture, careful planning means we have been fortunate enough to weather the storm. We’ve continually listened and responded to our clients’ requirements by providing them with a local service. The recent integration of our Structured Finance operations into our north and south client centres provides even stronger relationships, rapid local decision making and yet higher levels of support. The launch of our Fast Track Factoring Service has also been incredibly popular as has our active participation of the government’s Enterprise Finance Guarantee.

Perhaps this is why our sales growth has seen significant progress, albeit at a slower rate compared to 2008, witnessing a Q3 increase of 42% of new client levels above our usual third quarter average, dating back to 2000. Naturally, this is something we are extremely proud of and it is a tribute to the professionalism of our people, that, despite varying challenges, we also continue to receive positive feedback from our client research – 96% of our clients said Venture offered value for money.

We are still very much part of the ABN AMRO family and recognise that this is a time of huge opportunity. As an industry we are in a strong position to capitalise on the shift of emphasis from cost to service and drop the alternative label. Venture’s service-led approach means we are well prepared for the future and we look forward to supporting our clients into the recovery and beyond.

Peter Ewen

Managing Director

Raiffeisen Bank Aval

OJSC Raiffeisen Bank Aval was established on 27 March 1992. Since October 2005, the bank has been part of the Raiffeisen International Bank Holding AG group.

Raiffeisen Bank Aval continues to retain a leadership position among Ukrainian banks, as measured by total assets.

The factoring division of Raiffeisen Bank Aval has, during the last two years, provided domestic factoring with recourse predominantly. As a customer-oriented bank we have an individual approach to each big corporate client to provide high quality services. As a result we’ve achieved 235% sales growth last annum. Taking into consideration the recession because of the world economic crisis, our bank has huge potential that could not be used yet.

At the beginning of this year Raiffeisen Bank Aval became a member of International Factors Group. So it is going to start providing international factoring that will multiply the sales potential of the bank.

Factoring in Raiffeisen Bank Aval is made up of a small team of professionals. At the moment the factoring division consists of five people at the head office. Besides that we have great support on the part of our regional directions.

So, 2009 was a difficult year economically, but it provided us with valuable time for developing the existing and new procedures and services.

According to the economic forecasts of the business analysts we shouldn’t expect the first half of 2010 to be an easier year. But we are planning to continue our sales growth, providing new products and individual schemes. After stabilising the economic situation we will be ready to provide factoring without recourse and with partial recourse for developing enterprises.

Kinasevich Olga

Head of factoring team

Bibby International Trade Finance Inc.

The Atlanta office opened for business in September 2008 and as we all know this was an inauspicious time in the world’s financial markets. It echoed the tumultuous timing of the opening of our first office in the United States some seven years earlier in Florida. But Bibby is a bold and confident company as evidenced in its long trading history and despite the turmoil still existing in the world of finance we remain steadfast in our progress and commitment to assist American small businesses to thrive during these times.

Atlanta is the second specific purpose office for Bibby in the USA and focuses on the delivery of international trade finance. Our office in Nashville, Tennessee was the first specialist office and delivers our trucking or transportation product which is a very important market sector in the US. Our other offices in Los Angeles and Chicago deliver US domestic factoring.

We are part of the Bibby Financial Services Group and our global presence means we can deliver our clients a comprehensive service regardless of where their trading partners are. Our membership of the International Factors Group is also key in our delivery of export and import factoring around the globe.

Bibby International Trade Finance offers domestic and export recourse factoring plus trade finance in the form of purchase order funding. Purchase order funding is especially valuable for those clients who import products from around the world, as we can provide letters of credit or direct payment of funds to their suppliers in order to enable the manufacture of these goods. Factoring alone does not always provide either the cashflow or the control of the shipment that purchase order finance can provide these businesses.

Despite opening in the most challenging and changing market environment in recent history we are proud to have remained open for business and redoubled our efforts to support our clients through difficult times.

The United States economy is built on small business and the entrepreneurial spirit embodied in the American dream. We have seen many people’s dreams crushed over the past year as the number of bank failures skyrocketed and many of our competitors also fell by the wayside. The US credit market still remains very tight today and this is forcing many small business owners to turn to dangerous alternative funding sources sometimes including credit cards at exorbitant rates. Our solutions are therefore proving to be very popular as demand for finance remains critical to the success or failure of many small enterprises.

We remain the only factor to provide export receivables finance and import purchase order finance under one roof. There are a small number of specific purpose purchase order funding companies but they typically work with either a factor or a bank on the receivables side and the client does not always enjoy the continuity of service that we can deliver. There are even fewer factors and banks that will consider or even contemplate providing finance for
foreign receivables.

We were proud to receive the Export-Import Bank of the United States ("Ex-Im") working capital guarantee delegated authority accreditation in early 2009 – this enables us to obtain the backing of Ex-Im for some of our export facilities and further enhanced our reputation in the market place as a leader in the field of export receivables finance. Ex-Im’s poignant motto is: "When the US exports, America works".

We are starting to see some green shoots of recovery in the US economy. According to the United States Small Business Administration the US economic recovery began in the third quarter of 2009 as real gross domestic product grew an annualised 3.5%. Public expenditures buoyed growth, particularly the first-time homebuyers’ credit and the cash for clunkers auto rebates. Real consumption rose at a 3.4% annual rate, reversing recent declines. Likewise, there was strong growth in real private fixed investment, real exports, and real imports, due to strengthening of the global economy.

The sobering truth is that unemployment remains dangerously high at 9.8% and despite moves by the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates low as it attempts to address the credit crunch and stimulate economic demand, consumer confidence is still very low. Our purchase order product is a good indicator of future trends however as many businesses come to us to assist with a purchasing product for the holiday season spending peaks. We are pleased to confirm significant increases in demand for this service in 2009 compared to this time last year – we hope this will translate into a good set of sales figures for the retail market this Christmas season as the US consumer continues to drive the American economy.

We are confident that 2010 will see continued expansion and growth of the Bibby Financial Services brand across the United States. We have ambitious plans to continue our expansion throughout the Americas which includes South America in the not too distant future. Contrast this viewpoint with the current struggles of many of our competitors, large and small. Bibby is ambitious but stays true to our core product, factoring, and, as a result has not suffered some of the catastrophic problems of some of our competitors such as the CIT Group.

We will achieve this on the back of our consistent delivery of a competitive and quality service delivery from our experienced team as evidenced in our eight years’ history in the United States. This is a very important market for Bibby and we expect to continue to see strong growth in our client base in the next few years as more and more American businesses see receivables finance as the only effective tool to fund their growth.

We look forward to working with our existing and many new referral sources during this time and we are also delighted that the our parent company continues to support us with the stability and longevity that is so important to small businesses in these days of changing and challenging solutions for business finance. No one else has a story like Bibby’s and no one else delivers the range of services we do in our marketplace with the worldwide network of companies to augment our export and import offering.

As always I am most grateful for the continued hard work of the dedicated Bibby Atlanta team – including Barbara Goggins, VP operations and Raul Velarde, SVP purchase order finance. We continue to grow the team in numbers and are fortunate that Atlanta is a great place to live and work and the business community vibrant.

Ian Varley

Managing Director

Atlantic Risk Management Services Ltd

AtlanticRMS has been involved in many campaigns in 2009.

The credit crisis sets a backdrop of high attrition rates, complex assignments and the deployment of special resources into targeted areas. The use of detailed reconnaissance in the form of high risk reviews and collectability reports has been essential.

Our rapid response teams have been active in the avoidance of collateral damage and asset protection. A proactive approach through the use of portfolio analysis and tactical risk management tools continues to provide our clients with clarity and focus.

AtlanticRMS has developed smart processing procedures and controls to collect and recover our clients’ advances.

We recognise the importance of training and development within our team which is an essential part of winning this battle.

Undoubtedly, we will see more of the same over the next 12 months but we relish the challenge as we carry the good fight forward on behalf of our clients.

Joanna Bennett-Coles

Managing Director

Efcom gmbh

Efcom is a leading European software provider for high-level factoring solutions. With the ef3premium factoring software, efcom offers its partners an outstanding application for international factoring concepts based on an intelligent integration platform.

At present, Efcom assists European factoring companies in eight different countries – 24 reputable factoring companies put their trust in the secure and efficient software applications.

In 2009, Efcom had 29 employees and additionally works with freelance consultants in different trades.

Since the financial crisis, banks have been more reluctant concerning the issue of granting loans.

This results in an emerging difficulty for businessmen to raise new capital. One would expect this to be an asset for the factoring market, but the reactions are reserved, according to the growth figures of the recent market.

Instead of looking for new methods of funding, companies concentrate their efforts on optimising the internal cost structure. The strategy is to preserve the own capital-base, and as a result to avoid being dependant on outside capital – investments are deferred, or cancelled completely.

These developments have a notable impact on the factoring trade, which can be seen in recent figures. The German factoring market is affected by the slump in client sales, which results in a notable loss of revenue: The turnover of the 26 factoring institutions of the Deutsche Factoring Verband e. V. has decreased for the first time since 1977. At mid-year 2009, the total revenue declined by 14.78% to €43.26bn (the first six months of 2008 had a revenue of €50.76bn).

The factoring volume of the export trade decreased from €1.01bn (2008, first half-year) to €0.91bn – a minus of 8.12%. In the export area, the decline of sales has been even more alarming: the turnover of receivables decreased by 17.55% from January to June 2009 (from 13.14bn in the first half-year 2008 to €10,75bn).

Despite this recent decrease of growth figures, the factoring trade continually shows that it provides an attractive market with high potential for software developers. Efcom with its numerous technology partnerships is well prepared for future challenges, especially on the international market.

At the present time, new software solutions are in the making – online-factoring, risk management and international address validation will enhance the already well-established software functionalities.

Especially for major banks that need to process large amounts of data, Efcom will provide a highly efficient solution for 2010.

In this way, Efcom is looking forward to 2010, with bright perspectives and determination to obtain new markets within Europe. Together with its corporate partners, Efcom trusts in the excellent reputation of its services and further development of its factoring software portfolio.

Bodo F Reinecke

Business Manager