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BANKING
SOMRUEDI BANCHONGDUANG
Loan refinancing was the main factor helping Kasikornbank meet its first-half small business loan targets, according to bank executives.
The country's fourth-largest bank made 20.7 billion baht in new loans to small businesses in the first half, representing 9% growth from the end of 2007. KBank has a full-year loan target of 60 billion baht or 20% growth.
Pakorn Partanapat, a first senior vice-president, said the bank's SME (small to medium enterprise) customer base rose 30% from 2007 in the first half, thanks largely to loan refinancing of customers from other banks.
''We believe we can meet our loan growth target for the year,'' he said.
Small business loans rose faster in the first half than medium-sized business loans, due in part to high base effects and the larger untapped market base for smaller firms. Medium-sized corporate loans account for 65% of the bank's total SME loans of 320.7 billion baht.
KBank reported outstanding credit advances of 792.59 billion baht at the end of May.
KBank ranks its business clients by annual sales, with small businesses defined as those with annual sales of 10 to 49 million baht per year and medium-sized businesses those with annual sales of 50 to 400 million.
Mr Pakorn said loan demand came from a variety of sectors, including agriculture, auto parts and export producers.
Loans were for both working capital and term loans, although the recent hike in commodities and raw materials prices had increased the need for short-term liquidity among local firms.
Mr Pakorn said KBank's Khao Kla venture capital unit had also approved investments of 53 million baht in four companies to date. Khao Kla was reviewing potential investments of another 104 million baht in four other small businesses as part of the bank's K-SME Venture Capital programme.
The venture capital management firm, established last October by KBank, has an investment target of 200 million baht for its first year of operation.
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