By Asia Samachar Team | MALAYSIA |
Malaysian small business financier Knight Capital Sdn Bhd is opening an office in London, its maiden venture abroad after serving the Malaysian small businesses for more than two decades.
The expansion to the United Kingdom (UK) is in response to its observation that the UK economy is facing a huge funding gap for small and medium enterprises (SME’s). Its UK offshoot Knight Credit will begin operating on 1 Nov, the day after the Brexit deadline.
“Knight Credit will apply Knight Capital’s lending model in the UK to replicate the holding company’s success in Malaysia,” Knight Capital operations head Samreet Singh Randhay, who will be running the London office, said in an email to Asia Samachar.
Over the last 10 years, its turnover has been in excess of RM450 million, according to information at its website. It is led by Kiranjit Kaur as its CEO.
Incorporated in 1997 with a RM10 million paid up capital, Knight Capital is a licensed lending institution registered under Malaysia’s Ministry of Housing & Local Government. Its core business is the fast approval of short and mid-term loans to individuals, businesses and projects.
The Kuala Lumpur-based financier hopes to lend around £1.5m to around 15 to 25 small businesses in its first year in the UK with products like term loans, bridging loans and working capital with no minimum amount.
The implication is that it will be lending between £60,000-£100,000 a time to small businesses, although Knight Credit says it can go as high as £3m, according to a UK news report.
Samreet noted that the challenges present in the UK lending scene was far less than Malaysia, hence the opportunities that present itself would be a better focus point.
“It’s really compliance based in the UK thus creating an environment that is fair to the lenders and the borrowers hereby mitigating any potential challenges faced by the lender. We at Knight Capital pride ourselves on transparency that adheres to the global standards,” he said.
He also added that the UK economy was facing a huge funding gap for SME’s that was increasing year on year coupled with low loan approval rates for SME’s.
“This provides ample of opportunity for us to positively impact the market as our business model is suited to address such challenges as faced by the UK SME market. This is where Knight Capital’s management experience and previous success cases will present to be a great asset.
“We will not immediately reject a loan application based on below acceptable levels of credit scoring and will in fact perform further due diligence on their business model to assist them with the best loan package to ensure their goals are met,” he said.
For the SME’s that do not consider other providers due to the hassle and time, he said Knight Credit will provide clients with an unparalleled customer services experience that ensures they do not face any hassle while also being able to disburse a loan in under 12 days.
Our goal is to seek a listing in the UK in due time as we have already been working on it for the past 12 months. On an ending note, Knight Credit will seek to give back to the UK economy by providing employment in every city we have a physical presence and also by injecting a substantial amount of liquidity into the SME markets,” he said.
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