SET Announcements

RABBIT - AEON - HUMANICA ENTER THE DIGITAL LENDING BUSINESS

30 March 2021

Rabbit Group, a member of VGI Group PCL (“VGI”), AEON, and Humanica, announced the establishment of “Rabbit Cash Company Limited (Rabbit Cash)”, a joint venture that creates an easy solution for consumers to access funding at their fingertips nearly instantaneously.

“As people and businesses have continued to rapidly shift to a digital society, the needs for them to access funds has also evolved. Rabbit Cash aims to solve the speed and needs of modern lenders. To achieve this Rabbit Cash plans to develop financial products to provide digital lending using alternative data that utilizes lifestyle spending and behavioral patterns in order to evaluate a borrower’s risk and to determine an appropriate credit line as well as the interest rate. This enables every customer to have easy and secure access to capital funds.”, said Nelson Leung, CEO VGI.

Initially Rabbit Cash will have 2 key target groups. The first group will be comprised of small business owners, online merchants, independent professionals, or those who have nontraditional sources of income. The second group will be company employees who have low liquidity and need instant credit, like those affected by Covid-19. The trial group of customers will be the nearly 1 million employees of companies that Humanica services and the initial product will be low-interest welfare loans.

The joint venture will leverage Rabbit Groups strengths as a leader in technology and digital payment, along with AEON’s market leading experience in various forms of microfinance, and Humanica’s expertise as a digital platform leader in payroll system management service and human resource management system.

BSS Holding Company Limited (Rabbit Group) will hold 77%, AEON Thana Sinsap (Thailand) Public Company Limited 18%, and Humanica Public Company Limited 5%, with an initial registered capital of Baht 800 million.

In addition to digital lending, Rabbit Cash will launch Angel Fund. The Angel Fund program will help facilitate business operators or small business owners’ access to quick and secure financial services with special interest rates in order to sustain their business growth. These small business operators are essential in helping to keep the lifeblood of the Thai economy flowing in a positive direction.

Rabbit Cash’s digital lending is expected to launch in the second half of 2021.