F88, Vietnam’s secured lending provider and insurance distributor, has reportedly finalized a $10M senior secured loan facility from Lendable Inc, an emerging market Fintech focused on offering debt financing.
As mentioned in the announcement, this facility is the first transaction for Lendable in Vietnam and it has “marked a significant milestone for F88 in accessing the international debt financing market in addition to F88’s bond issuance and its partnership with CIMB, a … bank in the region.”
Mr. Phung Anh Tuan, CEO and Founder of F88, stated:
“We are delighted to partner with Lendable, an impact debt provider, to drive further financial inclusion in Vietnam. F88 is aiming to disburse half a billion US dollars in 2022. F88 has expanded its reach beyond F88-branded stores through partnerships with leading retailers and technology partners in Vietnam making our services available throughout a network of almost 4,000 F88 and partner stores. We are planning to use this facility to serve millions of unbanked and under-banked individuals and MSMEs in Vietnam,”
Hani Ibrahim, Chief Investment Officer of Lendable, remarked:
“We have been very impressed by the F88 team, who have a vision to create equal access to financial services for those underserved in Vietnam. F88’s impressive growth, robust asset quality and strong earnings profile are a testament to its leading position in Vietnam. It has been a pleasure working with the F88 team and Granite Oak, F88’s investor and advisor in this transaction. We look forward to this facility being the start of a close partnership with F88 in its exciting growth journey.”
F88 has received a credit rating of BBB- (stable) from Fiin Ratings. The stable outlook reflects Fiin’s expectation that F88 “will continue to maintain its leading position in Vietnam’s alternative lending sector together with its strong earnings profile and healthy asset quality.” F88 has consistently “delivered strong business results, executing its business plan well and achieving profitability since 2019,” the update revealed.
Founded in 2013, F88 claims to be one of the fastest-growing secured lending firms operating in Vietnam. Their vision is to “bring affordable, transparent, and instant access to financial services for 50 million unbanked and underbanked individuals, MSMEs who have limited access to credit.” F88 offers “secured lending services, insurance products, utility bills payments, money transfer, e-wallet deposit and withdrawal.”
As of December 2021, F88 “operates a network of 525 stores in 60 provinces . Despite the COVID-19 outbreak, F88 has successfully maintained revenue growth of 113% and loan book growth of 70% in 2021.”
As noted in a release, Lendable is a debt finance provider to fintech companies “across frontier and emerging markets that creates access to new financial products and services for un- and under-banked populations.”
Lendable finances Fintech firms that “facilitate consumer and MSME credit, productive asset finance, payments, remittances, and digital marketplaces.”
From its offices in London and other locations, Lendable “directly originates, structures, underwrites, and monitors all transactions.” To date, Lendable has disbursed more than $225m to fintechs in 14+ countries.