Avers Bank: the priority is the support of small businesses
Avers Bank, despite the general tendency of the Russian banking market, do not cease crediting the medium and small enterprises. In 2015, the bank issued loans at almost 2.6 billion rubles to SMEs. For the universal bank, it is very important to work with this segment. They can get a good and steady client by developing together with him and by helping to transit from the category of small business to medium one. The representatives of two companies-clients of the bank told Realnoe Vremya how they were building their businesses during the crisis and how the bank supports them.
From a partner to a dealer
Ferromotors — a young client of Avers Bank PLC yet. The company has been working with the bank for about a year. But the received loans have already helped it to raise the status from the official partner to the official dealer of Daimler KAMAZ Rus PLC. The Director General of Ferromotors PLC Vil Shamsutdinov tells that the founders of the company were thinking about what trucks to realize — Mercedes-Benz or DAF. But the dynamics of the last 5 years shows that in addition to Scania and Mercedes-Benz virtually no one in our region is developing in the sales in the market of trucks supply. It happened partly because Mercedes entered the Russian market later than other European companies. Now the company is developing dynamically and in the cooperation with KAMAZ pursues the correct policy to saturate the market with their vehicles.
It is quite difficult to receive the status of an official dealer. For that, a dealer must meet a number of requirements, which the automobile manufacturers demand from the candidates. An official dealer must have a service station, where the customers can perform maintenance of their cars. The specialists of the service station periodically are trained and certified, so a manufacturer is trying to maintain the quality of services provided by an official dealer. What are the advantages of a dealer over a partner? It is a dealer who makes the situation on the market, sets the conditions of sales, service. It is a dealer who in terms of changes in consumer demand can receive revenue through after-sales service, sales of the parts, and other services.
Vil Shamsutdinov: 'We are typical representatives of small business. The building of such business from scratch requires about 150-200 million rubles.'
Therefore, Ferromotors needs in the shortest period to bring into compliance its service station with the requirements of the dealer contract with Daimler KAMAZ Rus. The loan from the Avers Bank has been taken particularly for that purpose. It will allow to cover the basic branding costs, the purchase of furniture, the organization of cold storage and other matters.
It is not the first loan
For the dealer, it is not the first loan from Avers Bank. 'We are typical representatives of small business. The building of such business from scratch requires about 150-200 million rubles. Our turnover grows due to the sales. The previous loan from Avers we partially used for that purposes. Then we became the partners with Daimler KAMAZ Rus. We needed to reach particular financial indices, to purchase special instruments, equipment,' told Vil Shamsutdinov.
The entrepreneur notes that branding is an image component of the business. Such costs are necessary. But this cost pays off over time. And you have to bear the liabilities to banks today. Despite the fact that the profitability of a small business today, as a rule, does not exceed 10%. And the banks lend at 20%.
According to Director General of Ferromotors, the track business is now experiencing more difficult times than the automobile one. For example, in the automobile segment, Mercedes now feels great because there is a category of people who continue to buy the cars of this brand. But the hauliers can't afford new trucks now. The additional burden for them is the price of fuel, salaries for drivers and the charging system Platon. The medium-sized companies-hauliers, whose fleet consists of 10-50 trucks, are in the worst situation now.
'Now the customers are not trying to buy a certain brand of truck,' says Vil Shamsutdinov. 'They pay great attention to the parameters quality-price. So, after the last jump of the euro, they buy the latest model of KAMAZ — 5490. In fact, it is a simplified version of the Mercedes-Benz Axor. But the price is much lower. And there are the units of Mercedes.'
Service and repair
Amid the crisis, when the customers do not want to purchase not only new but also used trucks, Ferromotors is focused on the repair and service of the trucks. 'Service becomes the main direction of our activity now,' says the Director General. 'Because the truck market has shrunk and is not going to grow, there is no clarity with Platon. By the way, we can repair even the engine and transmission in KAMAZ -549.'
In the future, the company is planning to create its own shop of body repair. The trucks are mostly used as a mean of earning money. Therefore, even a short break in work causes great loss. The repair of a truck is much more difficult that of a car. The quality repair of trucks needs the use of modern equipment, for example, the computer diagnosis of key components, welding works.
It is possible that Ferromotors again will take a loan in the Avers bank to implement this project. Vil Shamsutdinov does not announce the period of the construction of a shop of body repair yet. But it is sure that the real economy will rise from his knees. As the dealer is connected with the segment that serves the real economy, if the turnover increases, the volume of transportations will also increase, and the business of Ferromotors will get better.
'The market is not always going to be like today. In a year or a year and a half, we expect its growth. The vehicles again will be actively bought from official dealers. And for difficult repair the hauliers will turn to the service centers where there are the qualified specialists, modern equipment,' predicts the Director General of Ferromotors.
Without state investments
Another client — Direct Investment Fund PLC — cooperates with the Avers Bank since its foundation in 2007. The Fund manager Ruslan Khalilov calls the bank one of the main partners and says that even the building where the Fund is located, was purchased on credit funds received in the bank.
Direct Investment Fund specializes in the implementation of business projects, contributing to their development through the integration of human resources capacity, administrative and financial support.
The Fund works with Avers Bank not only on maintaining of operational accounts or salary projects.
'The Bank supports the SMEs in our structure,' explains Ruslan Khalilov. 'It looks like this. Our projects — Industrial Park M-7 and Business Platform – are working with representatives of SMEs. As for Industrial Park M-7, in cooperation with the Avers Bank we have implemented quite a lot of interesting projects. The residents of the industrial Park often cannot buy land, to build production facilities and purchase necessary equipment at once. The bank provides credit support. There is a synergistic effect of such cooperation.'
The federal resource for finding investments 'Business Platform' aims to 'connect' the entrepreneurs with the investors. The base consists of more than 700 potential investors — private investors, commercial organizations, investment funds, venture capital funds. The team of young and active employees of the Business Platform helps not only the author of the idea to find a potential investor but an investor to obtain a credit in the Avers Bank. Due to this funding, new business projects are launched.
'In the project 'Business Platform' there has not been invested a single state ruble and we do not require an author of the idea or an investor any accountability unlike the state structures,' says the managing director of the Direct Investment Fund. 'We do not ask how many job positions they will have or how much tax they will pay in the budget. The main thing for us is to provide business communication of an entrepreneur with an investor. It is our aim, we work for this.'