SCB X, Thailand’s biggest bank by market value, agreed to buy consumer lender Home Credit’s business in Vietnam for about US$860 million in a bid to widen its regional footprint.
The purchase by SCB X’s Siam Commercial Bank unit should be completed by the first half of next year, subject to regulatory approvals, the Bangkok-listed financial group said in a statement. Bloomberg News first reported news of the deal on Tuesday.
The acquisition is a milestone in SCB X’s bid to become a leading regional financial technology group, chief executive officer Arthid Nanthawithaya said in the statement.
“This strategic acquisition strengthens our presence in the high-growth Asean market and also increases value and maximises return to our shareholders in the long term,” he said.
The Home Credit purchase marks the Thai lender’s entry into Vietnam and hands it about 14 per cent of the country’s consumer finance market, 15 million customers, 14,000 point-of-sale locations and an experienced management team, the CEO said. Once completed, the purchase will be net positive to the bottom line, he said.
Home Credit kicked off the sale of the Vietnamese unit last year. The business also attracted interest from Thailand’s Kasikornbank and KB Kookmin Bank, a unit of South Korea’s KB Financial Group, Bloomberg News reported at the time.
Home Credit is streamlining its operations as its owner, PPF – controlled by late Czech billionaire Petr Kellner’s family – shifts investment focus back to Europe. Home Credit has been reviewing its businesses in Asia after cancelling a US$1.5 billion Hong Kong initial public offering in 2019.
The lender disposed of its units in Indonesia and the Philippines to Bank of Ayudhya, a Thai arm of Japanese bank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. Home Credit employs 6,000 people in Vietnam, PPF said in a separate statement on Wednesday (Feb 28).
Founded in 1997, Home Credit has operations in several countries across Asia, central and eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union. PPF is a holding company with interests in finance, telecommunications, manufacturing, media and biotechnology. Kellner was 56 when he died in a helicopter crash in 2021.
Home Credit Vietnam had a net profit of 1,320 billion Vietnamese dong (S$72.7 million) in 2022 and has a cumulative growth rate of 18.7 per cent in total assets over the last decade, SCB X said. BLOOMBERG
