Country Guide 2018 : Portugal
The 2018 Portugal Country Guide is brought to you by Costa Duarte, our founding Astreos member. Since 1921, Costa Duarte has been at the forefront of insurance in Portugal.
About Costa Duarte
Main Contact
Key Information
Expertise
Date of Establishment: 1921
Ranking: First independant
Employees: 51
Credit Insurance Specialists: 3
Nb of offices: 2 (Lisbon and Porto)
- Credit Insurance
- Factoring
- Bonding
Latest News
Costa Duarte in 2017 continued its path with a 16% growth in fees and 31% in premiums. This continuous growth was achieved in a very hard economic environment and with a strong interest rate drop.
Macro-economical environment
Main Indicators
Top Commercial Activities
GDP Growth
- 2016 – 1,2 %
- 2017 – 2,7%
- 2018 – 2.2%- forecast
Population: 10.5 million
Unemployment Rate: 8.9 %
- Machinery (14,6%)
- Auto Industry (11,4%)
- Fuels (7,7%)
- Metals (7,6%)
- Plastic and Rubber (7,4%)
- Agriculture (6,3%)
- Shoes and Textile (5,8%)
Strengths
- Privileged location and a gateway for
other main markets including 250 Million Portuguese speaking countries - Recognized work force with talented
people thanks to the Portuguese educational system - Top country in technological services
- Modern network of infrastructures
- Tourist attractiveness
- Lower labor costs
Weaknesses
- Hig Public Debt (129% of the GDP and
126% in 2016) - Political Environment
- Low national growth (0,2%)
- High Deficit (3,2% 2015 and 2,5% in 2016)
- Unemployment rate above the EU average
(12,4% in 2015, forecast of 11,6%
2016 and 10,7% in 2017 according with
E.C.)
What's new?
According to the OECD, GDP growth is projected to remain above 2% in 2018 and 2019. The recovery will continue to be supported by past reforms, favourable external trade and domestic demand conditions. Investment activity will be underpinned by an increase in the absorption of EU structural funds in 2018. Consumption growth will remain solid, reflecting strong employment growth.
Trade Credit Insurance
Credit Insurance Market
- Focused on ground-up insurance
- Low penetration rate (5% of companies
use trade credit insurance)
Available products
- Ground-up
- Single Risk
- Bonds
Insolvencies
- Number and amount of insolvencies: 3,100
- Average Day Sales Out (DSO): 68 days
However, since 2009, the market struggles to reach again the 70M€ premium target and the reasons behind this evolution are various : the world crisis, the sovereign crisis, the Portuguese International aid in 2011 and in our days the complete soft market with a strong pricing decrease.
Our vision is that we might see in a future a deeper problem when the market start to increase prices and because of that, we could see some companies passing from using credit insurance to self-insurance methods.
Main Players and ranking
53% Cosec (Euler Hermes)
26% Crédito y Caución (Atradius)
12% Coface
9% Cesce
Cosec has still the biggest market share with 53,44%. But even though they have over 700K€ in premiums in 2017, their market share decreased by 0.2%in 2017. Cesce discovered a way to reverse the downward spiral initiated in 2014 by presenting a new product on the market called “pay per cover” that allows the client to chose which clients he wants to cover. This policy is unique on the market and it’s being used by companies that have insurance in other companies and uses pay per cover to have credit limits for the refused clients.
All the material is the property of Costa Duarte, this article has been written by João Costa.