RHB BANK TARGETS RM31B LOANS
Move in line with lender’s aim to become SME ecosystem bank by 2022
RHB Bank Bhd plans to disburse RM31 billion loans to small and medium enterprises (SME) by 2021.
Group managing director Datuk Khairussaleh Ramli said this was in line with RHB Bank’s target to become an SME ecosystem bank by 2022.
He said the RM31 billion target could rank it third in terms of market share in the SME financing segment.
The group now ranks fourth in the segment with a 9.06 per cent share.
“We are shifting from product proposition to ecosystem play, involving partnerships with technology solutions provider in order to become an SME ecosystem bank by 2022,” said Khairussaleh after RHB Bank’s annual general meeting, here, yesterday.
“We have approved RM7.2 billion in 2017 to support the growth of over 4,000 local SMEs. In the next three years, we aim to grant more than RM31 billion in new and additional financing that would benefit 18,000 SMEs,” he added.
RHB Bank has connected more than 100,000 SMEs through its Cash Management solutions and SME e-Solution, which includes payroll and accounting solutions.
Through the SME ecosystem, the group is expected to connect to 15,000 new SMEs this year.
The SME segment plays a big part in RHB’s five year strategic roadmap — FIT@22 that ends in 2022 — where it envisions to be the top three local bank.
Khairussaleh said the group was helping few firms with their initial public offerings (IPO).
“We expect a few IPOs, including the one listed tomorrow (today) where we are their joint global coordinator. We still have two or three reasonably big ones in the pipeline,” he said.
Khairussaleh said at least two of the IPOs would take place in the second half of the year with an estimated size of RM750 million each.
He said that they were from the consumer products and trading services.