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TOKYO, Nov 24 (Reuters) – Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (8306.T) said on Thursday it would buy the Philippine and Indonesian units of Dutch consumer finance firm Home Credit Group BV for around 596 million euros ($621 million).
The deal comes as Japan’s biggest lender aims to bolster its business in Asia to take advantage of growing consumption in emerging markets, while ultra-low interest rates and an aging population limit business opportunities. in the country.
Home Credit’s main services include point-of-sale loans, offered to customers for their purchases of goods and services at the physical point of sale and online.
The acquisitions will be made through the Japanese unit MUFG Bank, the Thai unit Bank of Ayudhya PCL (BAY) (BAY.BK) and the Indonesian unit Adira Dinamika Multi Finance (ADMF), the agreement to be completed by 2023, the company said.
Home Credit (HC) is controlled by the Czech Republic’s largest investment group, PPF, which was founded by the late billionaire Petr Kellner.
It recorded a bigger loss in the first half of 2022, mainly due to the impact of the sale of the Russian business. He said, however, that all of his countries except China were profitable during the period as they recovered from the effects of the pandemic.
Mitsubishi UFJ, which owns about 22% of Morgan Stanley (MS.N), completes its $8 billion sale of MUFG Union Bank (MUB) (UBCAL.UL) to US Bancorp as part of its global business shakeup.
Among Japanese banks, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc (8316.T) announced this month that it would buy an additional 15% stake in Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC) (RCB.PS) in the Philippines for around 460 million of dollars. Read more
Following the closing of the transaction, Bank of Ayudhya will own 75% of the shares of HC Philippines and 75% of the shares of HC Indonesia. MUFG Bank will own 25% of HC Philippines and ADMF will own 10% of the shares of HC Indonesia.
($1 = 0.9598 euros)
Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki in Tokyo, additional reporting by Jason Hovet in Prague, Editing by Louise Heavens and Tomasz Janowski
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