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Pepkor cuts back lending

11 Nov 2013

Fashion retailing conglomerate Pepkor - which owns the sprawling Pep Stores and Ackermans chains - has changed to a less risky approach for its microlending business.

At the end of September Pepkor's fast growing unsecured lending business, Capfin, stopped granting new loans.

The company offered microloans from mainly Pep Store outlets. Pepkor is now in the process of collecting on Capfin's debtors' book of around R1bn.

Pepkor, though, will still retain some indirect exposure to microfinance through an arrangement with new entrant to the local market, Southern View Finance (SVF), which has a primary listing in Bermuda and secured a secondary listing on the JSE last month.

SVF got a foot in the door in SA by acquiring the rights to use Pepkor's microlending footprint to originate unsecured loans for its own account. Pepkor will get an origination fee in return.

SVF's offering appears highly niched, offering clients loan terms of three months and the average loan size is around R3000.

Investment house Brait, a major shareholder in Pepkor, is also a 37% shareholder in SVF. SVF shares have not traded since listing on the JSE in early October.

Source: Financial Mail

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