KBank splits corporate loans into 3
Kasikornbank has divided its corporate-loan portfolio into three groups as part of its strategy |to prepare for the Asean Economic Community and further penetrate provinces outside Bangkok.
The three groups are: large corporations with annual sales of more than Bt5 billion; businesses with annual sales of Bt400 million to Bt5 billion; and business-to-customer (B2C) enterprises.
KBank executive vice president Vasin Vanichvoranun said yesterday that it had assigned a group of staff to take care of infrastructure loans, including power generation, for major corporate clients.
The rest of the staff would look after loans in the value chains for other businesses, including B2C.
He said the country was shifting towards relying on domestic consumption for its economic
growth, so value chains in the main manufacturing segments such as automobiles and electronics would mean supporting SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) loans as well.
Real estate and modern trade are in the B2C group, for which the bank has assigned staff to handle loans according to the trend of domestic consumption to spread into the provinces.
Vasin said the bank was giving importance to supporting renewable-energy infrastructure in compliance with the government’s 15-year power-development plan that ends in 2021.
The country is reducing the use of gas to produce electricity, from 70 per cent currently to 40 per cent over the next 20 years as it shifts to renewable energy.
Power plants are expected to increase overall capacity to 48,000 megawatts in the next 10 years from 40,000MW now, so the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand and private power producers will have to invest large amounts of money to construct both conventional and renewable-energy generation facilities.
Vasin said the bank targeted securing Bt25.6 billion worth of loans for renewable-energy projects, including wind, solar and hydropower over the next five years.
Outstanding loans for power projects currently are Bt40 billion, of which Bt10 billion is for renewable-energy projects.
Loans for power projects this year are expected to grow by 10-12 per cent, higher than corporate loans, for which the growth target is 8-9 per cent.
KBank projects that outstanding corporate loans this year will rise to between Bt380 billion and Bt390 billion from Bt350 billion as of the end of last year.
