Home Credit becomes a leading lender

HCC also has one of the market's most developed IT infrastructures and call centers, the company says. Its Wuhan call center was established in 2010, with a capacity to host more than 4,000 customer service representatives, and now averages more than 450,000 calls a day.

In February 2010, Home Credit received approval from the China Banking Regulatory Commission to establish a consumer finance company in accordance with new legislation adopted in 2009.

Known as the Home Credit Consumer Finance Company, it became the first such non-banking organization in China to be solely owned by a foreign investor. The company in Tianjin now provides a range of support including cash loans to finance purchases of durable goods, education or travel.

Bednar says that HCC is keen to focus on consumers including young couples, blue-collar workers and farmers, who are perhaps neglected or priced out by traditional lenders.

"Those customers often do not have a credit record, and know very little about consumer financing as they previously have had no contact with lending institutions, and traditional lenders are reluctant to lend to them," Bednar says.

About 80 percent of these customers are in the 25-40 age group, and a consumer finance loan may be the first financial service product they use, he says.

"To attract these customers, we focus on customer education, which will allow them to understand how consumer finance works. We speak to them through call centers and we give lectures, which they can come along to," Bednar says.

The law requires lenders to notify customers about the total to be repaid and to allow a period for customers to change their minds. But HCC officials say they go above the requirements by spelling out how much needs to be repaid each month and allowing customers 15 days to call HCC back and ask for a change, which is double the time allowed by some competitors.

"We are very transparent about our products and aim to be a responsible lender," Bednar says.

Apart from Home Credit, the PPF subsidiary Sotio is also very active in China. Sotio, a biotechnology company focusing on developing cellular immunotherapy for the treatment of cancer, opened a laboratory in Beijing this year.

It is Sotio's second laboratory, following one opened in 2010 in Prague, where the company's headquarters are located.

Sotio's China laboratory produces therapeutic products for patients diagnosed with prostate and lung cancer. Together with back-office facilities, the Sotio China laboratory occupies an area of more than 3,500 square meters.

Seventy Chinese work in the laboratory, but the number is expected to increase to 200 when full operational capacity is reached.

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