From left to right: Aeon Credit Service (M) Bhd chief strategy officer Ajith Jayaram, chief financial officer Lee Kit Seong, chairman Ng Eng Kiat and managing director Yuro Kisaka.
KUALA LUMPUR: Aeon Credit Service (M) Bhd
, which recorded a stronger set of results in the financial year ended Feb 28, 2019 (FYE19), will leverage on technology initiatives and innovative solutions to improve its performance and customer experience.
Its chairman Ng Eng Kiat said on Thursday innovation was one way to promote positive customer experience as it sought to maintain its performance in the current financial year by also leveraging on the strength of the Aeon brand.
“We will continue to innovate and enhance our products to meet market demands and most importantly, to stay relevant in the competitive market,” he said in a statement issued after its AGM.
Aeon Credit, a non-bank financial services provider, posted a 18.5% rise in profit before tax (PBT) of RM472.2mil for the financial year ended Feb 28, 2019 (FYE19) from RM398.3mil a year ago. Net profit rose by 18.2% to RM354.6mil from RM300.1mil. Revenue grew by 10.6% to RM1.37bil from RM1.24bil.
The better FY19 performance was underpinned by its ongoing efforts to improve customer loyalty through innovative product offerings to the B-40 and M-40 segments of the population.
In November 2018, Aeon Credit introduced the Aeon Wallet and Aeon Member Plus Visa card to widen its customer base and ensuring payment transactions were seamless and convenient. These products were well received by existing and new customers.
“We have over 200,000 downloads of the e-wallet app and we have registered over 700,000 cardholders for our e-money card to date. We are on-target for one million cardholders for the e-money card a year after the launch last November,” Ng said.
He said the Aeon group of companies were continuously upgrading their services as it targeted to have over five million loyalty card members.
Ng said the e-wallet app was developed primarily to serve customers’ retail needs but the app will be enhanced further to cater to the customers’ demands.
“We are not in competition with other providers and in fact we welcome collaboration with other providers as a way to a smart and sustainable business model,” he added.
Ng said Aeon Credit would continue to develop a seamless experience for its customers and among the among the initiatives to be rolled out are the digital on-boarding process with e-KYC (know your customers) and mobile solutions.
Aeon Credit reported a 27.6% increase in credit card holders to 280,000 in FY19, exceeding the average industry growth of 5%.
Despite the challenging market environment in 2018 due to card issuers competing to increase their card base, Aeon Credit introduced its platinum card in the same year. This resulted in an increase in the number of customers and spending behaviours among customers.
Aeon Credit chief strategy officer Ajith Jayaram said in the credit card segment, he was encouraged to see new consumers since the launch of the Platinum card due to the benefits offered to Aeon retail customers.
During the media briefing, Ng also introduced the new managing director, Yuro Kisaka. He takes over from Kenji Fujita, who will be relocated to Aeon Thana Sinsap (Thailand).
Previously, Kisaka was the managing director of Aeon Microfinance (Myanmar) Co., Ltd.
Kisaka, 44, has more than 20 years of experience in managing the overall business strategy and operations of Aeon Credit Service (Asia) Co., Ltd. He joined Aeon Credit Service Co., Ltd in 1997.
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