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FINANCE
SOMRUEDI BANCHONGDUANG
Tisco Bank wants to buy assets of foreign financial institutions hit by the global financial crisis, said senior executive vice-president Oranuch Apisaksirikul.
She said the crisis offered opportunities for Thailand's financial institutions and that Tisco was already in talks with one US institution about purchasing its Thai auto hire-purchase portfolio.
Mrs Oranuch declined to offer details but sources said that AIG was looking to divest its assets in Asia. AIG, the world's largest insurer, accepted an US$85 billion bailout last month after massive losses.
"We are talking with several overseas financial institutions, including US companies, to buy up their car loan portfolios," said Mrs Oranuch.
She said Tisco had abundant funds for acquisitions, with deposits of 93.56 billion baht and total assets of 116 billion.
Bank executives said plans to expand the deposit base remained on track, with a growth target of 100,000 accounts by the end of the year, up from 62,000 now.
Current and savings accounts currently account for just 16% to 18% of total deposits, although the bank expects this to rise to the industry average of 30% within the next few years.
Tisco reported third-quarter net profits of 397.92 million baht, down 9.6% year-on-year largely due to lower contributions from brokerage and investment. Trading gains from securities investment dropped 95.9% year-on-year in the third quarter due to poor market sentiment.
But the bank reported interest and dividend income in the third quarter up 15.1% year-on-year to 1.93 billion baht. Loan growth for the first nine months was steady at 13.2%, with the auto hire-purchase loan portfolio up 11%.
Tisco president Pliu Mangkornkanok said the bank expected to meet its loan growth target of 20% for the full year.
"Auto hire-purchase lending trends remains positive for the fourth quarter. But we are tightening operations overall due to rising risks," he said.
Sectors such as exports, directly exposed to the impact of a global slowdown, are likely to experience greater difficulty in obtaining credit, Mr Pliu added.
Tisco also will postpone plans to float 10 to 15 billion baht in subordinated debt in the fourth quarter due to volatile market conditions.
Shares of Tisco closed yesterday on the SET at 11.60 baht, down 60 satang, in trade worth 23.91 million baht.
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