Success factors

Handlowy Heller (HH), the oldest factoring company in Poland, has been renamed ING Commercial Finance. The name change comes as a result of Dutch company ING Commercial Finance BV's purchase of 100 percent of the shares in HH. ING Commercial Finance Polska has also signed a cooperation agreement with ING Bank Śląski for the provision of factoring services.

"The asset-based lending market, that is factoring, leasing and commercial property mortgage, is growing much faster than the general lending sector. We want to be able to offer our clients a full range of solicited services," said Ben de Vrie, vice president of ING Bank Śląski.

According to the Conference of Factoring Institutions (KIF) in 2005, there were 10 factoring companies operating in the Polish market, not counting factoring departments within banks. The total turnover of these companies amounted to zł.14.2 billion.

"After 2005, we are in second place with a 23.22-percent share of the factoring market, and our turnover is growing at a faster rate than the market. Last year, HH posted a zł.7.5-million net profit and while the market grew by 17 percent, we recorded a 27-percent growth," said Andrzej Żbikowski, CEO of ING Commercial Finance Polska.

"Until now we had had only 10 salespeople. By joining the ING group we increased the number to 400. We are planning a fast increase in the number of clients thanks to the synergy effects. By the end of this year, we would like to have more than 100 clients," added Ryszard Lubliński, member of the ING Commercial Finance management board.

Factoring services are still not very popular in Poland as compared to the EU leader Great Britain, where the market reached EUR 185 (zł. 735) billion.