F88 nets $50 mln prior to IPO set for 2024, seeks more funding

Vietnamese consumer finance firm F88 has raised a series C investment of $50 million led by Vietnam-Oman Investment Fund and Mekong Enterprise Fund IV to further expand its distribution network nationwide and digital business ahead of an initial public offering planned next year.

Vietnam-Oman Investment Fund, or VOI, Mekong Capital (parent company of Mekong Enterprise Fund IV) and F88 announced the total investment on Thursday in Ho Chi Minh City, where the first two are headquartered. They did not disclose every single investment and the names of the other investors.

“VOI, backed by the Oman Investment Authority, desires to expand its investment in microfinance in Vietnam to provide the underbanked and unbanked population with access to small loans,” F88 chairman and CEO Phung Anh Tuan explained the reason VOI started to invest in his firm.

“Mekong Enterprise Fund IV has the same interest to help improve the quality of financial services to retail consumers in Vietnam,” he added.

Mekong Capital’s founder and partner Chris Freund said: “We’re now investing in one the largest companies in Vietnam… I can rely on F88 and its team to be a model of what works best to reliably grow a business and achieve its vision.”

Vietnam-Oman Investment Fund investment director Nguyen Xuan Giao said, “This is our first investment in the Vietnamese financial service sector. This shows our confidence in the company’s business model, growth potential and the social benefits it can bring.”

The latest deal is Mekong Capital’s third investment in F88, following its two earlier investments announced in 2017 and 2020.

VOI was established in 2008 as a joint venture between the Oman Investment Authority and the State Capital Investment Corporation of Vietnam, or SCIC. Its investments focus on growth sectors like high-tech agriculture, infrastructure, water treatment plants, renewable energy, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, and education.

“We are among a few private companies in the small lending business that can satisfy strict investment criteria by VOI and Mekong Enterprise Fund IV in terms of social impacts,” F88 chairman Tuan said.

The Hanoi-based financial services firm is looking for alternative financing sources, including other international funds, to support its business expansion plans in the Vietnamese market, home to almost 100 million people, according to him. Issuing bonds is another channel for consideration.

Established in 2013, the consumer finance firm currently operates some 830 service points and offices across Vietnam and expects to expand to at least 1,000 this year. F88 has achieved an average annual growth rate in loan balance and total revenue of more than 200%, the firm said, adding it is eyeing an IPO next year if its market capitalization can reach $1 billion.

As a preparatory step, it will start trading its shares on Vietnam’s unlisted public company market (UPCom) this year, but the specific timing is still unknown.

In mid-February, the platform and the Ho Chi Minh City branch of Thailand’s Kasikornbank kicked off a strategic cooperation partnership, also to tap unbanked and underserved people in the Vietnamese market. Vietnam’s consumer finance market is still in its infancy but is expected to grow over the next few years, F88 chairman Tuan said at that time.

Thailand’s Kasikornbank opened the branch last August, saying it expected to have 1.2 million clients and disburse over $500 million in Vietnam.

In 2022, F88 received $70 million as international loans, with $60 million from Hong Kong-headquartered CLSA Capital Partners, and $10 million from London-based Lendable. The British startup provides capital to emerging and frontier market fintech companies.

In August 2021, Thai bank Ayudhya of Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group signed a deal with Vietnam’s Saigon-Hanoi Bank to totally take over SHB Finance for 5.1 billion baht ($156 million). To date, the acquisition process has not been completed.

In October of the same year, Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp completed its 150 billion yen ($1.4 billion) purchase of a 49% stake in FE Credit, Vietnamese lender VPBank’s consumer finance firm. Therefore, this financial services firm was renamed VPBank SMBC Finance.