By Makiko Yamazaki
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc said on Thursday it would buy the Philippines and Indonesian units of Dutch consumer finance company Home Credit Group BV for about 596 million euros ($621 million).
The deal comes as Japan’s largest lender aims to beef up its business in Asia to tap growth in consumption in emerging markets, while ultra-low interest rates and an aging population limit business opportunities at home.
Home Credit’s main services include point-of-sales loans, offered to customers for their purchases of goods and services at the point of sale both physical and online.
The acquisitions will be made through Japanese unit MUFG Bank, Thai unit Bank of Ayudhya PCL (BAY), and Indonesian unit Adira Dinamika Multi Finance (ADMF), with the deal to be completed within 2023, the company said.
Home Credit (HC) is controlled by the Czech Republic’s biggest investment group, PPF, which was founded by late billionaire Petr Kellner.
It reported a wider loss in the first half of 2022, mainly due to the impact from the sale of Russian operations. It said, however, all its countries except for China were profitable in the period as it recovered from the pandemic’s effects.
Mitsubishi UFJ, which owns about 22% of Morgan Stanley, is completing its $8 billion sale of MUFG Union Bank (MUB) to U.S. Bancorp as part of its global business reshuffle.
Among Japanese banks, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc said this month it would buy an additional 15% stake in the Philippines’ Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC) for about $460 million.
After the completion of the deal, Bank of Ayudhya will hold 75% of the shares of HC Philippines and 75% of the shares of HC Indonesia. MUFG Bank will hold 25% of HC Philippines, and ADMF will hold 10% of HC Indonesia shares.
($1 = 0.9598 euros)
(This story has been corrected to fix headline to show number in U.S. dollars)
(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki in Tokyo, additional information by Jason Hovet in Prague, Editing by Louise Heavens and Tomasz Janowski)