Japan’s MUFG to buy Indonesia auto loan firm Mandala for 7 trillion rupiah

MITSUBISHI UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) said on Monday (Jun 26) it was buying Indonesian auto loan provider Mandala Multifinance for seven trillion rupiah (S$630 million) to deepen its Asian presence and tap consumption growth in emerging markets.

Japanese and other Asian companies have been increasingly looking to build and expand their footprint in South-east Asia, in the hope of capturing an emerging middle class in a region with a population of some 690 million.

The Mandala acquisition will help MUFG expand its auto loan business in Indonesia, which the Japanese bank has built through Adira Dinamika Multi Finance, a car loan unit of its Indonesian banking unit Bank Danamon.

In the deal, to be completed by early 2024, MUFG’s main Japanese banking unit, MUFG Bank, will take 70.6 per cent while Adira will hold 10 per cent.

MUFG considers Indonesia to be particularly important because it boasts the largest gross domestic product in South-east Asia, with high growth expected in future, the banking group said in a statement.

Mandala provides auto loans for new motorbikes and multi-purpose loans secured by motorbikes in the domestic market, with a strong presence in eastern Indonesia.

The deal follows MUFG’s US$200 million investment in Indonesian fintech company Silvrr Technology, known as Akulaku, and 596 million euro (S$878.4 million) acquisition of the Philippine and Indonesian units of Dutch consumer finance company Home Credit.

Indonesia’s finance market has drawn strong mergers and acquisitions interest in recent years.

Singapore’s UOB acquired Citigroup’s consumer business in four South-east Asian markets for about S$5 billion in 2022, while Nasdaq-listed ride-hailing-to-payments group Grab bought a 16.3 per cent stake in Indonesia’s Bank Fama International for US$35 million last year.

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Singapore’s second-biggest bank, OCBC, is looking for acquisitions in Indonesia to speed up its growth, its chief executive officer told Reuters last year. REUTERS