Diversified Japanese conglomerate Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group on July 6 reached an agreement with Fullerton Financial Services Holdings to take over the latter's non-banking arm Fullerton India Credit Company.

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SMFG will acquire a 74.9 percent stake in FICC following regulatory approvals and will eventually acquire 100 percent of the latter.

The investment puts forth SMFG’s Asian push towards consumer and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) lending, with FICC’s expertise in serving mass-market consumers and MSME customers in India.

“We intend to leverage our expertise in Japan market as well as capabilities of our franchises across key emerging Asian markets. We are pleased to partner with FFH and jointly accelerate FICC’s growth strategy”, Jun Ohta, President and Group CEO of SMFG said.

The transaction reaffirms the strength of FICC’s platform underpinned by corporate governance, risk management, prudent liquidity management, agile technology, and advanced analytics. The two firms will work together on the next leg of FICC’s growth.

Ohta said that India is one of their focus markets where they see high growth potential and want to build a deeper presence.

“As a long-term investor, we believe that the FICC platform’s innate strengths of multi-product focus, pan-India distribution, and strong management will enable us to build a comprehensive financial service offering in India,” he added.

Meanwhile, Hong Ping Yeo, CEO of FFH said they have developed FICC into a differentiated financial services franchise driving impact for the growing mass-market consumers and enterprises through a pan-India presence and a scalable digital platform.

“We believe that SMFG’s experience in building high-quality franchises and digital platforms in emerging markets aligns with our vision for FICC.”, he added.

Moreover, Shantanu Mitra, Managing Director and CEO of FICC, said with SMFG’s strong endorsement of FICC’s capabilities and potential to scale up, they are confident of further strengthening the franchise and create long term value for all stakeholders.

First Published:Jul 6, 2021 2:15 PM IST