AEON Financial, the financial arm of Japanese retail major AEON, has agreed to buy a 100% stake in Post and Telecommunication Finance Company Limited (PTF) from Vietnam-based Southeast Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SeABank) for 4.3 trillion dong ($175 million).
PTF was founded in 1998 by the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group, and sold to SeABank in 2018. The company is focused on personal loans, with over 200,000 customers in 30 cities and provinces across Vietnam.
It posted 677 billion dong in net income in 2022, compared to 146.5 billion dong a year earlier and 17.9 billion dong in 2020, according to AEON Financial’s announcement.
Meanwhile, SeABank said in a separate statement that the proposed sale of its microfinance unit will provide it with the capital for expansion and more investment to become one of the key retail banks in the country.
AEON Financial is present in 10 countries in Asia. It entered Vietnam in 2008.
“The AEON Group has positioned Vietnam as an important country in its overseas strategy. This investment will enable us to capture the capital needs of the Vietnamese market, which is expected to see high growth in the future,” the Japanese firm said.
With the new acquisition, AEON Financial plans to expand its credit card and insurance businesses in the Southeast Asian country, where credit card ownership remains low at around 10% of the population.
The transaction will also create synergies with AEON Group’s retail operations in Vietnam, providing financial products and services for customers of its local store network, including AEON stores, Citimart and Ministop.
AEON said it will leverage the group’s customer base and financial know-how to promote its Vietnam business as a new pillar for growth.
Asian financial players have spotted opportunities in Vietnam’s microfinance landscape, and started to snap up local assets to own licences. Earlier this year, Thailand’s Krungsri completed its acquisition of SHB Finance from Saigon – Hanoi Bank. The deal was reported to be worth $156 million.
In late 2021, VPBank announced a 49% stake disposal to Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group.
Maritime Bank had also been in talks to sell its consumer lender FCCOM to a Japanese investor. As the deal fell through in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the bank said last year that it would look for buyers again.