Consumer Lender Home Credit Files For $1b Hong Kong Float, Targets Sept IPO

Consumer lender Home Credit B.V. on Monday filed for a Hong Kong initial public offering, which two sources said could raise more than $1 billion, just three days after AB InBev shelved the listing of its Asian business.

The Prague-based lender, controlled by Czech financial group PPF, plans to go public in late September, one of the sources said, becoming the latest non-Asian company choosing to list in Hong Kong.

Home Credit declined to comment. The sources declined to be identified as they were not authorised to speak to media.

Home Credit joins a number of big international companies which have made Hong Kong listing plans. UK-based data centre operator Global Switch is also aiming to raise up to $1 billion in a Hong Kong IPO.

Anheuser Busch InBev NV, the world’s largest brewer, had planned to list its Asia Pacific business in Hong Kong, but AB InBev has now shelved the share sale, citing market conditions among other factors.

The cancellation of the potential $9.8 billion listing by Budweiser APAC, the world’s biggest so far this year, sounds a downbeat note for other large Hong Kong IPOs.

CHINA CONSUMER LENDER

Home Credit, which offers point of sale loans, cash loans, and revolving loan products, has grown into one of the biggest non-bank consumer lenders in China, its largest country of operation by gross loans.

The company, founded in 1997 in the Czech Republic, operates in several countries including China, India, Indonesia and Russia. It had assets worth nearly 25 billion euros ($28.18 billion) as of March, according to its draft prospectus filed on Monday.

In May, PPF, owned by Czech businessman Petr Kellner, raised its holding in Home Credit to 91.1% after buying a 2.5% stake from co-shareholder Emma Capital in a deal valuing the company at 8.5 billion euros. Czech investment group Emma Capital holds the remaining 8.9%.

The company granted about 21 billion euros in gross loans as of March and made a net profit of 154 million euros in the first three months this year, the prospectus showed.

The consumer lender plans to use the proceeds to increase its capital base and expand its lending activities, in particular in South and Southeast Asia as well as China, according to the prospectus.

Citigroup, HSBC Holdings, and Morgan Stanley are the co-sponsors of the float.

Reuters