Credit demand and inflation caused Gentera to post triple-digit net income in the third quarter of the year.
The financial institution, which is dedicated to giving microcredits to people who start microbusinesses, obtained a net profit of 1,514 million pesos, which represents a growth of 130.4%.
“The rises in the interest rate are caused by an inflationary context, so we benefited from a greater volume of credit because the client needs more money and asks for a larger amount. However, it affected us because the cost of financing increased,” Patricio Diez Bonilla, CEO of the financial institution, told Expansión.
Inflation in Mexico was 8.5% between July and September and in the same period.
Gentera, which is the parent company of Compartamos Banco, also achieved good results in other regions such as Peru, and thanks to these operations a 7% customer growth was achieved with 3.32 million people.
“The good performance of the group has more to do with the good growth of customers, in an orderly manner, and above all with the digitization efforts that have made us more efficient,” said Diez Bonilla.
By the end of this 2022, Gentera expects to close with a net profit of between 4,650 million and 4,850 million pesos, that is, in the last quarter of the year they go for profits of more than 1,000 million.
The triple-digit profits contrast with the figures of other financial entities that have reported double-digit growth.
The January slope: the stone in the road
The good figures reported could be clouded by the famous ‘January slope’, which in 2023 will be one of the most difficult in the last two decades.
The financial institution expects that after a fourth quarter of economic dynamism due to the holiday and holiday season, activity will slow down in the first three months of 2023.
Diez Bonilla estimates that in the first half of the year, some clients could experience difficulties in paying their loans, so they will be cautious in providing financing to clients, both new and captive.
“The inflationary issue has caused certain economic indicators to reduce their dynamism and the payment capacity of some clients to be seen as a problem,” he stressed.
