HITELGARANCIA ZRT. HAS A NEW NAME

The name change of Hitelgarancia Zrt. visualises the strategy and dynamic growth of the past three years. This has been approved by the owners at friday's general assembly. The company has consistently been appearing with its products on the market with the name Garantiqa, and that name has now been taken up by the organisation as well. The company reacts to the increasing market competition by expanding its product portfolio and exploring new possibilities.

Hitelgarancia Zrt. is continuing its activity as Garantiqa Hitelgarancia Zrt. with a new image - this was disclosed at the regular general assembly of the company. "The name change reflects an image of dynamic approach" - said György Radnai Chief Executive Officer after the general assembly. The image change was preceeded by a conscious preparation, the exceptionally popular products of the company are marketed under the Garantiqa brand umbrella already since the beginning of 2007, and because of this, the organisation is associated with this name to an ever bigger extent.

It is mostly thanks to the Garantiqa products, that the company has realised a growth in issued guarantees by more than 30%, in other words it has expanded significantly quicker than the SME loan market. All of this is a result of the dynamisation that started in 2005. György Radnai, who was appointed to lead the company, started an energetic product development process, expanded the client group with municipalities and raised the willingness for risk taking. Garantiqa is open towards factoring and leasing transactions, it has (together with the banks) developed special guaranteed loan schemes for SMEs, it has appeared on the EU grant market with its tender guarantee product, and lately, the first portfolio guarantee contract has been signed with UniCredit bank. The organisation also set a firm future base with the ever stricter risk handling environment because of Basel II, when the Hungarian Financial Supervisory Authority (PSZÁF) approved it as a company with the same risk management practises as the banks. Having obtained the equivalence decision, the banks can apply a smaller risk weight at the calculation of their capital adequacy and in provisioning, when dealing with loans guaranteed by Garantiqa.

Beside the well-proven methods, the main direction in the 2008-2011 period will be to find and exploit new paths. The news of the last few weeks show that Garantiqa is also moving into new markets: the operation of the JESSICA fund, which was designed in cooperation with EIB, assumes a fund management activity as well from the company. The role of communication will also increase in future. According to Zsolt Király, marketing manager of the company, this will not only set the base for having the new company name recognized, but also reflects to the fact that several new guarantee institutions have appeared on the market, and Garantiqa, which previously only had contact with banks, now targets the enterprises directly with its tender guarantee products.

"The new participants raise without a doubt the requirements towards guarantee organisations, and this calls for widening of the services and increasing the quality on the supply side. All of this serves the interests of the SMEs, municipalities and eventually the Hungarian economy" - said György Radnai, Chief Executive Officer of the company. Garantiqa, which is also continuously increasing in terms of staff, will keep its market leader position also in the future.

The Board of Garantiqa Hitelgarancia Zrt.:
(Newly elected members in bold letters)
1. dr. György Radnai
2. Ferenc Pichler
3. Zoltánné Lucz
4. László Kállay
5. dr. Zoltán Nagy
6. dr. László Hadi
7. Jolán Balla Csomósné
8. Klára Hajdú Bikszáné
9. dr. Péter Csillik
10. dr. Imre V. Csuhaj
11. Ákos Almási

The Supervisory Committee of Garantiqa Hitelgarancia Zrt.:
1. dr. Ferenc Bathó
2. Judit Gondos
3. Péter Pogácsás
4. dr. Gyula Szegedi
5. Zsolt Pelyva
6. Kristófné Batta
7. László Krisán