ACAP aims to list Global Service Center on MAI

ASIA CAPITAL Group (ACAP) plans to list its subsidiary Global Service Center Co, a customer-service provider and debt collector, on the Market for Alternative Investment next year, while also aiming to expand its customer-service business to CLMV markets (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam).
Global Service Center currently generates 30 per cent of ACAP’s revenue, with the remainder coming from lending. However, Sugunya Sukjaroenkraisri, chief executive officer of ACAP, believes that Global Service Center’s contribution could reach 40 per cent, as this business is needed in many segments.
ACAP earlier positioned Global Service Center as an asset-management company as well as a customer-service provider, but it acknowledged that the former was not its area of expertise given the serious competition and the cost of provisioning. However, call-centre and delinquent-payment collection services are in high demand by several telecommunication, finance, real-estate and airline companies.
Many firms have faced high costs for staffing their call centres and turnover is high, so outsourcing providers have become a better choice, as this reduces worries over after-sales service and debt collection, Sugunya said.
Airlines in the United States have used call-centre services based in the Philippines, and she believes her company has the potential to make Thailand a similar hub for call-centre services in the Asean region.
“We, therefore, have to improve technology and invest in IT to implement a full-scale system to accommodate more customers at home and abroad. We will at least double the number of customer-service centres from two currently. This means an investment of around Bt100 million, and the listing will support our aspiration,” she said.
ACAP is in talks with an Asia-based microfinance company with a footprint in Cambodia. Sugunya said ACAP wanted a strategic partner to help it expand its customer base in CLMV. The firm it is in talks with has expertise in personal loans and wants a footprint in Thailand, while ACAP aims to expand its lending to enterprises in CLMV through the partner’s network, she said.
ACAP is more familiar with secured loans to small and medium-sized enterprises than with personal loans, although it has provided the latter under the OK Capital brand. Thailand has high levels of household debt and non-performing personal loans are increasing, so the company will not be aggressive in this category, she said.
Personal loans account for 20 per cent of ACAP’s total loan portfolio of Bt4.5 billion. Last year, ACAP’s loan portfolio jumped to Bt4.5 billion from Bt400 million in 2015.
Meanwhile, banks have become more cautious on approving working-capital loans to SMEs especially property developers, making ACAP their choice.
The firm offers credit lines of up to Bt100 million to medium-sized enterprises and Bt300 million for large companies.
“Even though ACAP charges interest of 15 per cent per annum, higher than the 9-12 per cent offered by banks, medium-sized enterprises that need cash flow come to us because the banks have tightened loan approvals,” Sugunya said.
She said ACAP had no non-performing loans because it keeps up with its customers’ debt payments. The company believes that its borrowers don’t want to become delinquent and thus see their assets seized by creditors.
ACAP this year targets a loan portfolio of Bt6 billion. She said the firm would not be very aggressive as wants to give importance to quality rather than big numbers, and the economy this year is not expected to be much better than it was in 2016.