Asialink plans to go public by 2028

Asialink Finance Corp., a lender to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), plans to go public “not later than” 2028 to raise cash for lending expansion.The prospective initial public offering (IPO) is part of the company’s commitment under a new P4-billion investment that it received from Malaysia-based private equity firm Creador, Robert Jordan, CEO of Asialink, told a press conference.

Overall, the maiden share sale is just one of the fundraising activities in the pipeline of Asialink, which is targeting to grow its capital to P30 billion by 2028, from P12 billion at present.

Jordan said Asialink is in talks with banks and multilateral lenders like Asian Development Bank and the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corp. in a bid to secure new financing.

“Under the terms of the deal, we are required to go public not later than 2028,” Jordan said. “So hopefully we can do [it] earlier.”

Asialink has yet to determine the size of the IPO, but Jordan said the company aims to “raise as much as we can” to bankroll its plan to expand and reach underserved market segments.

Figures showed Asialink had released over P11 billion in loans in 2023, and attracted close to 27,000 new borrowers last year.

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For 2024, the lender is targeting to jack up its loan disbursements to P24 billion and achieve a 30 percent growth in net income. By 2028, Jordan said Asialink is projected to earn “in excess of P100 billion.”

“So we’re optimistic that we can hit that target [capital] … which we need to really support our SME clients,” he said. INQ