Junior market listed micro financier, Access Financial Services has acquired the loan portfolio, fixed assets and trade name of Micro Credit Limited, a release to the Jamaica Stock Exchange revealed. The acquisition is the second make by the company in just over a year.
The CEO of Access Financial, Marcus James, says “the acquisition is in keeping with the company’s overall expansion plan to grow its share of the local micro lending market. The business combination will see MCL continuing to serve the micro credit customers using its existing methodologies which have been proven both locally and internationally in that segment of the market resulting in above average portfolio performance. The alignment of the two entities will also result in efficiencies of scale.”
MCL was established in 2003 and has 6 branches islandwide. Christopher Williams, Proven Investments CEO stated earlier this month, that MCL was around the same size as Damark which were acquired by Access in May 2016 at a cost of $180 million which included, the loan portfolio of $148.7 million.
In 2015, Access acquired the loan portfolios of Asset Management Company and Appliance Traders for just over $500 million.
2nd buy out for Access Financial in a year
Access growing by acquisition
Access growing aggressively
Micro lender Access Financial (AFS) on 27 May 2016, entered into an agreement to purchase the business of Damark Limited as a going concern comprising mainly the loan portfolio, fixed assets, trademark and customer relationship for a consideration $180 million, notes to the 2017 audited financial statements show.
The principal activities of Damark Limited at the time of the acquisition of the assets was retail lending. Net assets acquired include, Customer relationships $21.8 million, Trademark and Trade name, $2.7 million, Loan portfolio of $148.7 million, Fixed assets of $2.17 million and Goodwill of $4.6 million.
Damark Limited previously operated out of Suite 13 at 11 1/2 Swallowfield Road in Kingston, Jamaica.
In 2015, Access acquired the loan portfolios of Asset Management Company Ltd formerly operated by Scotia Investments which was sold and ultimately purchased by Proven Investments before being sold to Access and Appliance Traders for just over $500 million. The acquisition helped in growing the net loan book at AFS above $1.5 billion or 35 per cent year-on-year.
Access which enjoyed strong growth in the 2017 fiscal year from ongoing business is not relying on geometric growth alone as information reaching IC Insider.com indicates that the micro lender is currently working on another acquisition. Our sources inform us that it is about the same size as the Damark acquisition and should be completed by the end of June.
The company made profit of $678 million from revenues of $1.5 billion dollars and had loans outstanding of $2.6 billion at the end of March. The stocks traded on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange at $50.
