OREANDA-NEWS. February 09, 2011. Platinum Bank and Home Credit B. V. announce that the acquisition of PJSC “Home Credit Bank” (Ukraine) from Home Credit B.V. has been closed. All regulatory approvals from the National Bank of Ukraine and the Ukrainian antimonopoly office had been received, reported the press-centre of Home Credit Bank.

Through this transaction Platinum Bank continues to pursue the development of its retail and SME businesses in Ukraine. Platinum Bank currently provides its services to more than 500,000 clients throughout Ukraine and after a process of integration Home Credit’s Ukrainian operations will be incorporated into Platinum Bank.

Platinum Bank will offer Home Credit’s retail clients a broad range of products and services as well as an extensive, high quality branch network. After the integration process, all retail services will be provided under the brand of Platinum Bank while the Home Credit brand will withdraw from the Ukrainian market.

Greg Krasnov, CEO of Platinum Bank, commented: “This acquisition will provide us with significant synergies and will accelerate our growth in Ukraine. It will also consolidate our position in the market, benefiting both shareholders and customers. In the upcoming months we will be focusing our efforts on making the integration process short and efficient, in order to provide our new clients with the highest quality products and service in the newly acquired branches as soon as it is possible.”  

Alexander Labak, CEO and Chairman of the Board, Home Credit Group, commented: “This transaction provides a mutually beneficial solution for our clients as well as our shareholders. I am convinced that Home Credit clients will benefit from a banking network that has greater scale and a wider product range as the business will become part of a Platinum holding that is committed on expanding in the Ukrainian market. As we withdraw the local market I would like to thank clients for their high loyalty and Home Credit employees for their commitment, hard work and creativity which always helped us to exceed our clients? expectations. Home Credit is continuing to focus its efforts in emerging markets of CEE, CIS, Asia and is ready to enter Middle East countries where there are opportunities for growth.”

Home Credit companies remain being present in five markets of the CEE / CIS regions including Russia, as well as in China and Vietnam and have served over 19 million customers across geographies. Home Credit will continue to build on its market-leading positions in consumer finance in each market in which it operates.

Notes to editors:

Platinum Bank (www.platinumbank.com.ua) – is a specialized retail bank, which since 2005 has been offering deposit and loan products for individuals through a network of branches and points of sale across Ukraine.  As of 1 December 2010, the consolidated assets of Platinum Bank comprised UAH 1.7 billion.  The main shareholders of Platinum Bank are international investment funds Horizon Capital, East Capital Financials Fund, Management and IFC (a World Bank company).

Home Credit Group (www.homecredit.net) is one of the leading providers of consumer finance in Central and Eastern Europe and Asia with over 15,600 employees serve 4.6 million Home Credit’s active customers (as of 30 June 2010).

Home Credit B.V., fully controlled by PPF Group N.V., is the holding company of the Home Credit’s CEE and CIS subsidiaries which operate in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan (a minority stake) and Ukraine (up to now).

Home Credit’s Chinese operations are controlled through a holding company HC Asia N.V. (fully owned by PPF Group N.V.), Home Credit's brand in Vietnam is represented by PPF Vietnam Finance Company Ltd. (fully owned by PPF Group N.V.).