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Alibaba plans 6b yuan loan scheme for SMEs

| Wednesday, May 06, 2009

E-commerce giant enlists support of eight leading banks

Mainland e-commerce giant Alibaba.com, backed by eight of the country's largest banks, plans to help small domestic companies hit by the economic slowdown to secure more than 6 billion yuan (HK$7.9 billion) in financing this year under its expanded loan-assistance scheme.

That sum is six times the estimated 1 billion yuan worth of loans obtained last year under the programme by more than 600 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are all paid members of Alibaba.com, in Zhejiang province.
The firm, part of Hangzhou-based Alibaba Group, will extend coverage of the loan scheme this year to member SMEs in Guangdong, Jiangsu and Shandong provinces, and in Shanghai with an eye to helping more firms revive business expansion amid the country's weakening economy.

The expansion plan was confirmed last week by John Spelich, the vice-president for international corporate affairs at Alibaba Group.

After securing support from China Construction Bank Corp and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Alibaba.com will add Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, China Merchants Bank, China Postal Savings Bank and City Merchants Bank to the list of its partner banks in the next few months.

"The general feeling is that we have a responsibility to do what we can to help our customers weather this economic winter, so they can thrive again in the spring," Mr Spelich said.

Alibaba Group founder, chairman and chief executive Jack Ma Yun earlier described the loan scheme as a means to use the economic crisis to change how the banks lent money to small businesses, saying it was a "first step in creating an entirely new financing environment built around e-commerce".

He said: "This scheme will have long-term and far-reaching benefits for SMEs around the world."

Alibaba.com set up the scheme in June 2007 amid the difficulty many mainland SMEs faced in preparing documentation and proof of creditworthiness to persuade banks to lend them funds for capital expenditure.
It targeted SMEs that need financing for domestic and overseas expansion but which have limited assets or a short credit history.

Serving as a bridge between the banks and its member SMEs, Alibaba.com helps the lenders establish a credit score for a company based on its e-commerce track record and online trust rating.

Alibaba.com - which has a global community of 36 million members, including 6.9 million import and export businesses in its online international marketplace - has built a central database of online credit-related information and its own evaluation and risk management system.

The banks can collect other relevant data on SMEs' performance, including sales, from Alibaba.com. To help their loan applications, SMEs can upload on the website other data such as videos of their business and financial reports.
SMEs can also obtain a group loan for a maximum amount of 2 million yuan, which will have applicants guarantee each other since they are often partners in a supply chain of buyers and customers.
Elinor Leung, an analyst at CLSA, said Alibaba.com's SME loan scheme dovetailed with the central government's efforts to boost lending to domestic companies.

"The scheme will [affect] Alibaba. com more in the long term as it hopes to encourage more companies to use its e-commerce platform," Ms Leung said.

"Domestic demand [for loans] is falling, so banks are willing to lend more money."

She forecast that Alibaba.com would post a 28 per cent year-on-year increase in revenue to 813 million yuan for the quarter to December last year, and a 43 per cent decline in net profit to 267 million yuan for the period.

The company's annual net profit in 2007 soared 340 per cent to 967.8 million yuan on 350.5 million yuan of interest income from oversubscriptions to its public offer in November that year.

SMEs taking advantage of Alibaba.com's loan programme are advised that the e-commerce company will intervene in case a loan recipient's performance starts to slip, endangering its ability to repay the loan.

Intervention includes alerting the lenders and, if necessary, informing SMEs' customers and partners about their financial position.

Source: http://news.alibaba.com/

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