China’s service industry is becoming a hot destination for investors, as it accounted for 50.5 percent of China’s GDP growth last year. (Photo : Getty Images)
An international consumer finance provider based in the Czech Republic has announced plans to invest 6 billion yuan ($921 million) in China as part of its expansion efforts, according to an article by China Daily.
Home Credit Group's chief executive officer Jiri Smejc made the announcement on Monday, March 28. Through the investment, Home Credit Group hopes to reach its 2017 goal: to double its business operations.
In addition to the billion-yuan investment, Home Credit Group has already established a research and development center in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, last year.
"This is a great business opportunity for us as we expect that an entire lending ecosystem will revolve around the smartphone," Smejc said in an exclusive interview with China Daily.
"Our immediate goal is to build an independent online lending platform in China that is at least as robust as our physical sales network," Smejc added.
To effectively reach the company's goal, Home Credit Group will increase the number of loan products offered in China. The firm is also looking into accelerating the development of its own online business.
It will be tricky, however, as the volume of goods bought on credit offline is still about 10 times higher than those bought on the Internet.
China's service industry is becoming a hot destination for investors, as it accounted for 50.5 percent of China's GDP growth last year. Due to its rapid development, the use of new technologies in the sector is expected to rise.
Home Credit first entered the Chinese market in 2007. Since its entry, the company has registered a capital of 3.3 billion yuan. Operations are scattered throughout more than 260 cities in 24 different provinces and municipalities. To date, the company currently has over 33,000 employees.
"To give you an idea of our business scale, we're talking about loans of 400 million yuan consumer goods alone," Smejc said. "Since 2007, when we came to China, up to the year-end, we have already supported household consumption with some 100 billion yuan in loans for different goods."
