Multinational consumer finance provider to expand to PHL

Multinational mass-market consumer finance provider Home Credit Group plans to invest more than €100 million (P5.396 billion) in additional funds over the next two years in line with its plan to expand into new Asian markets, particularly the Philippines and Indonesia. Home Credit has granted over €900 million (P48.564 billion) in consumer finance loans to individuals in Asia since 2009, enabling them to buy home electronics, motorbikes and other items. It has also already invested over €300 million (P16.188 billion) in the continent so far. The company has slated its operations in Indonesia to begin in the first quarter of 2013, and in the Philippines by the second half of 2014. Home Credit also plans to boost its growth in China, Vietnam and India, where it currently serves 2.5 million customers. “We see Asia as the primary growth driver for the Home Credit business globally,” said Home Credit Group CEO Jiri Smejc. “I have full confidence that the plans we are announcing today will help take our Asian business to new heights, enabling millions of new consumers to realise their dreams, and in turn helping to stimulate domestic demand across the economies in which we operate,” he also said. Home Credit currently employs more than 8,000 people across its Asian markets. To facilitate its growth, the company has continued adding point of sale (POS) locations across Asia, from over 12,000 at the beginning of 2012 to a projected 25,000 by the end of year. Home Credit’s beginnings in Asia started in 2004 when it opened a representative office in Beijing. Today, it has a network of 15,000 POS outlets in China. Home Credit’s European business, launched in 1997, has served more than 28.5 million customers in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Russian Federation, Belarus and Kazakhstan. — Gian C. Geronimo/BM, GMA News