Brexit seen as presenting new opportunities

“There are always opportunities in any crisis,” Mitsuji Konoshita, chairman and chief executive officer of GL, said yesterday. 

“Financially, we are very strong. Our debt-to-equity ratio is only 0.5 and we are raising a lot of new funds. This is great for a crisis situation” like this, he said.

There had been many offers in the past for GL to take over financial-service companies in the region, but negotiations were inconclusive because “they were too expensive”. 

After last week’s referendum decision in favour of a “Brexit” from the EU, prices for potential takeover targets should be lower. 

Konoshita is eyeing Indonesia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka, which are large markets for GL’s successful model of digital financing and carry enormous growth potential into the medium- and longer-term future. 

From a simple motorcycle-leasing company based in Thailand, GL has in recent years expanded to Cambodia and Laos as it develops an efficient digital finance platform and expands its consumer-finance portfolio to cover agricultural machinery, solar panels and electrical appliances. 

It is set to expand into Indonesia shortly. GL’s shareholders last week approved the company’s issuance of 170 million warrants. 

The extraordinary shareholders’ meeting also approved the issuance of up to US$130 million (Bt4.6 billion) in convertible debentures for GL’s strategic partner J Trust Asia (JTA). The proceeds from the convertible debentures and conversion of warrants will be used to finance expansion in GL’s existing markets of Thailand, Cambodia and Laos as well as other markets in Southeast Asia and beyond.