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With Strong cash flow, GL completes convertible debenture repayment. Now ready to accelerate the business expansion.
22 Jun 2020
With strong cash flow in hand over 3.2 billion baht, Group Lease Public Company Limited completes convertible debenture repayment to Creation Investment Company worth over 700 million baht including interest. Now GL is ready to accelerate the business expansion both inbound and abroad. One of many projects is Car and Motorcycle for Cash from Thanaban, a subsidiary company of GL. Believe the market continues to grow well
Mr. Alain Dufes, Chief Financial Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, said “on Friday, 19 June 2020, Group Lease fully repaid Creation Investments for the convertible debentures (CD) they held. Earlier this year, Group Lease and Creation mutually agreed to reschedule the original repayment of 30 March 2020 to be over the course of this year with full repayment in September 2020. This allowed Group Lease more flexibly in managing cash flow during the Covid-19 epidemic, which besides affecting the economies in which Group Lease operates, has also resulted in delays in legal proceedings and court decisions. We are pleased to announce that despite the Covid-19 impact on our business , we have fully repaid Creation Investments early.
We appreciate our partner Creation for working with us and giving us the additional financial flexibility. We have had a professional relationship with them for many years and it is reassuring to have a business partner that can work with us during these unique times. In the past year, we have successfully repaid both our Thai bond and Creation Investments.”
Mr. Tatsuya Konoshita, Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, stated, “while the COVID-19 epidemic impacts the global economy, we are maintaining full business operations. We have maintained full employment and anticipate no layoffs or business reduction due to the conservative approach we took during 2018 and 2019. The cost efficiencies and reduction of our business size have put Group Lease in a good position to emerge stronger and better prepared from the COVID-19 impacts once the strictest economic restrictions have dissipated.
We have been challenging with various issues for the last 2 years and while it has been difficult, it forced us to be more disciplined, focused and able to adapt to a changing environment. These lessons, have readied us to deal with the current COVID-19 environment and they will allow us to continue to fight, survive, and thrive. Today, we are ready to expand our business base both at home and abroad. At the same time, Thanaban Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Group Lease create a “Car and Motorcycle for cash” project which is a service for registration car and motorcycles with low-interest rates, high credit limit, and fast approval, to expands the customer base to groups of customers who need urgent money to enhance liquidity in this situation.”
Group Lease Public Company Limited reported core business operations remain profitable in 1Q2020, however recorded a net loss of 115.42 million baht due to extraordinary expenses
18 May 2020
Group Lease Public Company Limited reported 1Q2020 net loss of 115.42 million baht due to extraordinary expenses such as legal costs, exchange rate losses, and a special Covid-19 provision which all negatively impacted net profit. The Company has already proactively taken steps to reduce the impact of Covid-19 and will continue its smart growth strategy as core business operations remain profitable
Mr. Alain Dufes, Chief Financial Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, revealed “the Company lost 115.42 million baht in 1Q2020 mainly due to an increase in extraordinary expenses namely 28 million baht in legal costs, a special 82 million baht provision due to Covid-19, and 52 million baht in unrealized losses of exchange rate. Those 3 extraordinary expenses total more than 163 million baht and without those we would have been profitable this quarter. No one expected this economic downturn caused by Covid-19, but thankfully, we have focused the last 2 years becoming more efficient. In Thailand, we are now working with 17% more dealers than a year ago. This has proven effective as in March as the crisis began, we changed our hire purchase credit policy in Thailand, which should allow us to maintain good quality customers even as the economy worsens. Year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter, our operating expenses have declined which will serve us well during this shaky economic period.
In the asset-backed loan business, the actions taken to increase the efficiency show good result with an increase of contracts by 73% per branch with a lower cost.
Outside Thailand, our focus is on microfinance lending which continues to grow and perform well—income from group loans is up 27% compared to last year. While currently the legal fees, Covid-19 special provision, and unrealized losses on exchange rate gain the headlines as they impact net profit now, our improving business performance will impact the headlines in the future.”
Mr. Tatsuya Konoshita, Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, stated, “while we spent the last few years becoming more efficient and building a strong foundation, last year we started to focus again on growth and continued that for this first quarter. While the economic situation is unclear, we have more than 3.2 billion baht in cash to ride out the economic storm and we can pick where and when to invest in good customers. Our focus will be to continue to grow, but we will take good market share and be picky because our strong business foundation allows it. As our CFO stated, we only made a loss this quarter due to non-cash expenses: unrealized exchange rate losses and a special provision for Covid-19. Legal cost for now continue to impact the bottom line.
Our business operations are still profitable, our cash position is large, and we look forward to delivering great results in the near future.”