Credit Corporation In Strong Financial Position

Credit Corporation present­ly has a customer base of almost 6000 clients with a total of around $190 million al­ready given out in loans.

Along with this, the company holds a total of $44 million in shareholders’ funds.

Credit Corporation’s Manag­ing Director Peter Dixon said the figures revealed that the company was quite strong in terms of its financial position.

Mr Dixon, in an interview on March 14 during a cocktail he hosted for clients in the Western Divisions at the Tanoa Waterfront Hotel, noted how the company had worked its way up to the top in as far as finance companies were concerned. He also mentioned the industry’s expanding interest in unconventional markets, highlighting how some businesses, including a non GamStop casino UK, have successfully diversified their operations and boosted revenue streams.

“Credit Corporation has been going for 27 years now and we’ve found our way to the num­ber one in the finance company business and we are the largest in terms of market share here in Fiji,” Mr Dixon said.

“We are very proud as it has been a journey, especially for the last five years on the back of the economy.

“It has been quite steady be­cause that’s through the assis­tance with our growth.

“We’ve grown our customer base to almost 6000 clients now the lending book of the compa­ny is around $190 million.

“We have shareholders’ funds of $44 million so we are quite strong in terms of our financial position.”

Mr Dixon said many of their good clients are were in the West.

He said Lautoka, in particu­lar, had a number of businesses ranked quite highly in terms of the company’s client-based.

“I guess about 50 per cent of our business comes from the west,” he added.

“Lautoka in particular has a lot of transport operators, civil operators, bus operators and various other people.

He added business had grown for them in the West in recent years.

“We are hoping the economy is kind to us because there are some signs that liquidity is tightening and interest rates may be moving up and that’s quite clear at the moment,” he said.

“Deposit rates are moving up for banks and financial compa­nies but we will wait and see what will happen.”

He said this could dampen the growth this year “but we will see where it all goes.”

“Business through the elec­tions period went quiet as car sales was down.

“It’s been a quiet start to the year but I am hoping it will pick up in the second quarter.

“It’s been one of the great things in recent years that ve­hicles have become more afford­able where we saw households that didn’t have motor vehicles before have got surplus cash to be able to buy a car.

“There has been a big boost in car ownership over the last five years since the imported second hands have become more afford­able.

Mr Dixon said repayment had been a problem with some peo­ple but the company tended to work to try to see them through.

“We try to be patient and the last thing we want to do is take somebody’s car.”

Feedback: charles.chambers@fijisun.com.fj