Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance advises on Cambodia\'s largest Financial Services transaction

Clifford Chance has advised members of the investor consortium on their sale of a controlling stake in leading Cambodian microfinance business PRASAC Microfinance Institution Limited (PRASAC) to Kookmin Bank (KB).

PRASAC has around 180 networks with over 40 per cent market share and reported a 29 per cent return on equity in 2018. KB, one of South Korea's largest banking groups, is expected to leverage PRASAC's leading position as a foothold to accelerate expansion into the Southeast Asian retail networks, with announced intentions to turn PRASAC into a full commercial bank.

The matter was led by partner Neeraj Budhwani (Hong Kong), who was supported by Tom Lin (Singapore), I-Ming Tan (Hong Kong), Cecilia Chan (Hong Kong) and Shi-Cheng Chong (Singapore). Finance support was provided by Thomas England (Singapore) and Jia'en Ho (Singapore).

Commenting on the transaction Brian Li, Co-CEO and Executive Director of The Bank of East Asia (one of the consortium members) said: "This was a particularly complex transaction and its ultimate success delivered a terrific result for us. The dedicated team at Clifford Chance were closely integrated with the investor consortium throughout the transaction to help deliver a successful and important result within a compressed timeline."

Neeraj commented: "We are pleased to have advised on this landmark transaction for the financial services sector in Cambodia, particularly in light of recent challenges regionally and globally. We believe this transaction demonstrates the continued long-term confidence of strategic acquirers in the sector, underpinned by strong fundamentals in the Southeast Asia region."

Definitive documentation was signed in January 2020 and completion occurred in early April 2020.