S. Korea's KB Kookmin Bank gains controlling stake in Thai credit financing firm

[Photo provided by KB Kookmin Card Co.]

KB Kookmin Card Co., the credit card affiliate of Korea’s leading private lender KB Kookmin Bank, has put Thai credit financing firm J Fintech under its arm, marking it the first Korean financial institution to attempt back to Thailand after being spooked by the epicenter of the Asian financial crisis in 1997 that ended up damaging South Korea most.

KB Kookmin Card on Monday closed a deal on acquiring a 50.99 percent stake in J Fintech plus voting rights for 24 billion won ($21.5 million) from the Thai credit financing firm’s parent Jaymart Group. KB Kookmin Card will have management control.

J Fintech is an affiliate of Thai conglomerate Jaymart Group that owns mobile phone distributor, which has some 400 outlets nationwide, and the country’s top debt collection agency. The Thai financing firm offers personal and car loan services with 139.2 billion won assets as of the end of 2020 and 3.9 billion won in net profit.

KB Kookmin Card expects to make rapid inroads into the Thai consumer financing service market through Jaymart Group’s retail network.

Thailand is a major in the Southeast Asian bloc. Its gross domestic product is $543.6 billion, ranking 23rd in the world, as of 2019. Major Korean companies, including Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, have operations there but only three Korean financial firms have been running liaison offices until now – state lender Korea Development Bank, Samsung Life Insurance, and KTB Investment & Securities. Korean finance firms have mostly stayed out from Thailand after leaving the country during the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis.

With the latest deal, KB Kookmin Card has become the first among the Korean credit card firms to enter the Thai market. It has two more overseas units – one in Cambodia that opened in 2018 and one in Indonesia, launched last year.

[ⓒ Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]