Acquiring a 15% stake
By Feature Editor Kim Hyung-dae
JB Financial Group announced on July 26, 2023 that the company has entered into a strategic partnership agreement with Finda, a loan brokerage and management company, through a mutual equity acquisition.
JB Financial Group will acquire a 15% stake in Finda's third-party allotment capital increase to become the second largest shareholder, with JB Financial Holdings holding a 5% stake and Jeonbuk Bank holding a 10% stake once the share acquisition process is finalized.
Meanwhile, Finda will purchase JB Financial Holdings' shares in the market in the amount of JB Financial Holdings' investment stake.
The signing of the strategic partnership agreement between JB Financial Group and Finda at JB Financial Group's Yeouido office on July 26, 2023. (Information provided by JB Financial Group)
Founded in 2015, Finda is a financial comparison platform fintech company with an MAU of about 520,000 persons and business partnership with 68 financial companies. In the second half of the year, it will actively enter the mortgage loan exchange and deposit/insurance product comparison markets.
JB Financial Group's major affiliates, including Jeonbuk Bank, Gwangju Bank, and JB Woori Capital, have been continuously expanding their sales channels for financial products through Fintech platforms.
Therefore, with the strategic partnership with Finda, a major player among fintech platforms, JB Financial Group plans to further strengthen its platform channel strategy.
JB Financial Group and Finda will collaborate in the development of alternative credit scoring models as well as joint product development to create various synergy effects.
Through the strategic alliance with Finda, JB Financial Group aims to strengthen the group's non-face-to-face business and expand new business areas by exploring overseas markets.
At the signing ceremony, Chairman Kim Ki-hong of the JB Financial Group and Joint Representatives Lee Hye-min and Park Hong-min (Co-CEOs of Finda), attended and promised active cooperation for mutual synergy.
"As the boundaries between finance and non-finance are disappearing, it is becoming very important for fintech platform companies to collaborate with financial companies," said CEO Lee Hye-min of Finda. "JB Financial Group is an important strategic partner of Finda, so Finda has decided to purchase a partial stake in JB Financial Holdings,” he said.
Going forward, we will build an alliance based on mutual trust to create synergies and continue our digital transformation."
"In the era of digital finance, financial institutions and fintech companies are not competitors, but partners who should be mutually beneficial," said Chairman Kim Ki-hong of JB Financial Group. "With this investment, JB Financial Group has laid the foundation to strengthen the competitiveness of its platform channels.