Entering Vietnamese Financial Market
Hyundai Card has entered the Vietnamese financial market by acquiring a 50 percent stake in Vietnam's consumer finance company, Finance Company Limited for Community (FCCOM), for 49 billion won.
The card company signed a contract on stake acquisition on Oct. 28.
FCCOM is a wholly owned subsidiary of Vietnam Maritime Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MSB) which specializes in personal loans.
After acquiring the stake, Hyundai Card and MSB will operate FCCOM as a 50:50 joint venture. Hyundai Card will take care of product development, marketing, risk management, and digital finance, while MSB, which is familiar with local markets, will be responsible for sales and operations.
The new joint venture will complete the approval processes in Korean and Vietnam in the first quarter of next year. The company plans to expand its business areas from personal finance, which is currently its main business area, to credit cards, auto finance, and corporate finance.
In particular, Hyundai Card is paying attention to the rapid growth of the Vietnamese financial market and the sales growth trend of Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors. Vietnam's private lending market is growing at an annual rate of 60 percent, and the number of credit card customers also increased by more than 27 percent year on year to about 7.4 million.
Last year, Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors took the largest share (32 percent) in the Vietnamese automobile market. Their sales nearly doubled from those in 2015. In the future, Hyundai Card plans to maximize synergies by holding various joint marketing events with Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors.