Author: admin
Group Lease Cambodia announces partnership with Bajaj three-wheeler vehicles (Tuk-Tuks)
07 Jan 2019
January 7, 2019 – GL’s Cambodia subsidiary (GLF) partners with Bajaj dealers in Cambodia to expand the three-wheeler market. GLF, which already is the exclusive third-party financer for Honda motorcycles in Cambodia, continues to expand in this rapidly growing market.
Mr. Tatsuya Konoshita, Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, announced today that GL Finance (GLF), GL’s subsidiary in Cambodia, reached an agreement with Bajaj dealers in Cambodia. The agreement allows GLF to finance three-wheeler vehicles and covers both new and pre-owned vehicles. Previously in October 2018, GL in Myanmar announced a partnership with Bajaj’s Myanmar distributor to work together on three-wheeler vehicles, which has already resulted in 130 contracts from only 2 dealers. GL in Myanmar plans to expand to additional dealers this year.
“This partnership builds upon to success we have had with Bajaj in Myanmar and shows our ability to try a new product in one market and use that experience to launch that product in our other markets as we continue to expand our network throughout ASEAN. We will continue to grow and meet our mission of providing innovative finance products to emerging entrepreneurs to improve their economic development” Konoshita said.
Mr. Riki Ishigami, Director and CEO of GLF, explained that “three-wheel demand in Cambodia is very high. Tuk-tuks are an increasingly common sight in Phnom Penh and throughout Cambodia as they allow groups and individuals to move around affordably and quickly. These GLF financed tuk-tuks will allow emerging entrepreneurs to earn approximately THB 800 per day while their daily finance expense to GLF would only be about THB 150. The best way for us to tap into this growing market and serve our customers better is to partner with dealers of an established three-wheeler producer like Bajaj. Bajaj in Cambodia already has 22 dealers which sell roughly 2,000 tuk-tuks a month at an average price of THB 110,000 to 120,000 and with GL and Bajaj working together, we expect even further growth.”
Bajaj, originally from India, is the world’s largest producer of three-wheelers at roughly 1 million per year. They have a presence in 36 countries and a market share of 97% of three-wheelers in ASEAN. Bajaj in Cambodia has sales exceeding 2,000 per month and continues to grow.
Clarification on the information appears in Kaohoon website dated 15 November 2018
22 Nov 2018
Group Lease Public Company Limited (the “Company”) would like to clarify the information which is posted on Kaohoon website regarding the black case No. 83/2561 that on 2 October 2018, the Company submitted to the Civil Court the application requesting a temporality injunction which requested JTA to deposit money as security for the Company’s damage. The Court scheduled the hearing date to be 7 December 2018. The application for the injunction was initiated by the Company against J Trust Asia Pte. Ltd.
The clarification is to prevent the misunderstanding of shareholders, investors and public on the Court’s order which shall be made on 7 December 2018.
The headline of the news posted on Kaohoon website on 15 November 2018 is “GL See Profit in 3Q after Lowers Expense Allowance, J Trust Case to be Settled on 7 Dec. 7” and “On November 8, 2018, the Court already completed the inquiry on the application requesting a temporary injunction. The Court scheduled the date of hearing the order of the application requesting a temporary injunction and the settlement of issues to be 7 December 2018. If there is any progress, the Company will update as appropriate.”
For main proceeding, the Court has not yet scheduled the day of taking evidence. The Company expects that the process of taking evidence will commence within 2019 and the process of taking evidence may take approximately 1-3 years. If there is any progress, the Company will update as appropriate.
Group Lease announces 3Q2018 performance Four consecutive quarters of profitability
15 Nov 2018
Group Lease Public Company Limited reported 2018 third quarter revenue of 729.56 million baht and net profit of 104.64 million baht —4 consecutive profitable quarters after the one-time provision in 3Q of 2017.
Mr. Alain Dufes, Chief Financial Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, revealed that the Company continues to be profitable with 104.64 million baht in net profit for the third quarter of 2018—marking the fourth consecutive quarter of profitability. Revenue grew 0.5 million baht or 0.1% compared to the second quarter while service and administration expenses were reduced by 0.4 million baht or 0.1%. However, due to a decline in portfolio quality in Thailand which we have already started to address and a one-time write off in Indonesia totaling 12.51 million baht, credit costs increased 36.28 million baht or 20% compared to last quarter. Overall, net profit declined 17% (104.64 million baht from 125.98 million baht) and operational profit declined 23% (103.24 million baht from 134.69 million baht) in one quarter. Still, we had a much better financial result this quarter compared to the third quarter last year as profit increased from -2,267.43 million baht to 104.64 million baht.
Mr. Tatsuya Konoshita, Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, reiterated “the GL story of 2018 has been to have remain profitable every quarter, work with regulators to resolve any issues, and set up the company to be in the very best position for growth and increased profitability in 2019. We are meeting these goals as we have recorded our forth conservative quarter of profitability and have been profitable every quarter this year. Last quarter we revised our 2017 financial statement at the SEC’s request and we currently have no requests from them, but if they ask us anything then we will happily oblige.”
For future growth, we are taking steps in each country to improves our portfolio quality and processes to become more efficient in all countries, even if that means accepting a decline in portfolio as we have done in Cambodia. To increase our credit quality in Thailand, we changed our criteria starting in July to be stricter. This has caused our contract approval rate to decline resulting in slower portfolio growth, however we expect to see improvements in our credit costs starting in the end of 2018 and early 2019 due to the changes we have already made. We have already proactively increased our credit provisions and this quarter performed a one-time write-off in Indonesia to conservatively show our financial position. Our associate company in Sri Lanka has also proactively and conservatively provisioned for credit losses as they have increased their credit expense by 40% compared to 3Q2017. “For growth, Myanmar continues to be our main growth engine as expected. We received 368% more Honda contracts in 3Q2018 (almost 50,000 contracts) and have 272% more active microfinance customers now than we did a year ago, more than 145,000 now. Credit quality there still is remarkable and we still have 0% NPL in our microfinance lending.
Overall, we continue to expect Thailand to remain stable in size but with improved quality. Laos will continue to grow modestly while we will reduce our Cambodia exposure. Myanmar will continue provide exceptional growth while we expect our microfinance business to steadily grow and provide a future foundation of growth.” Mr. Konoshita concluded