RRJ Capital看好中資信用卡製造商

Betting on China's financial sector can be risky, especially with the government in the midst of shaking up its sleepy big banks. But one Asian private equity firm has found a way into one rapidly growing sub sector of China banking --the business of credit cards.

押注中國的金融領域可能會有風險，尤其是在政府正在對大型銀行進行改革的背景下。但有一家亞洲私募股權公司卻看準了中國銀行業一個迅速增長的子業務，即信用卡業務。

RRJ Capital, a Hong Kong- and Singapore-based firm, is investing around $50 million for a 'significant minority' stake in one of China's largest credit card manufacturers, Jing King Technology Holdings Ltd., according to a person familiar with the situation. Jing King Chairman and Chief Executive Lennon Tan will continue to hold a controlling stake in Jing King.

據知情人士透露，在香港和新加坡均設有辦公室的RRJ Capital計劃投資大約5,000萬美元收購精工科技集團有限公司(Jing King Technology Holdings Ltd., 簡稱：精工科技) “相當規模的少數股權”，後者是中國最大的信用卡製造商之一。精工科技的董事長兼首席執行長Lennon Tan將繼續持有該公司控股權。

China has issued a total of 4.2 billion bank cards as of the end of last year, according to the country's central bank. Financial institutions here are expected to issue some 2.5 billion more smart cards over the next three to five years, according to the person familiar to the situation.

中國央行稱，截至去年年底，中國共發行銀行卡42億張。知情人士稱，預計未來三到五年，國內金融機構將再發行大約25億張智能卡。

Jing King, based in Shenzhen, was founded in 1984 and makes plastic cards, including debit cards, credit cards and SIM cards that go into cellphones. It makes the cards that have a chip-based integrated circuits embedded inside, known as smart cards. Jing King was owned by Southeast Asian private equity firm Southern Capital Group before being bought out by management in 2012.

位於深圳的精工科技創辦於1984年，該公司生產借記卡、信用卡和手機使用的SIM卡等卡片。該公司生產的卡片是基於芯片的集成電路嵌入式卡片，也稱爲智能卡。精工科技原爲東南亞私募股權公司Southern Capital Group所有，該公司管理層於2012年買下了其所有權。

Domestic credit card manufacturers are private or state-backed firms so determining which players rank largest is difficult. The exception is Goldpac Group Ltd., which listed publicly on the Hong Kong stock exchange last December. Goldpac, backed by Bank of China International, sells machines that cut plastic cards and also makes the cards themselves. Its shares are up 7.5% since listing, compared to a 6.6% loss on the Hang Seng Index in the same period.

由於中國國內的信用卡生產商私企或國企混雜，因此很難判斷那家公司的規模最大。去年12月份在香港上市的金邦達寶嘉控股有限公司(Goldpac Group Ltd., , 簡稱：金邦達寶嘉)是一個例外。由中銀國際控股有限公司(Bank of China International Holdings Ltd., 簡稱：中銀國際)支持的金邦達寶嘉出售切割塑料卡片的機器，該公司自己也生產卡片。金邦達寶嘉的股價自上市以來上漲了7.5%，而恆生指數同期下跌6.6%。

Jing King's growth is promising because it is one of the few domestic smart card manufacturers in China that has accreditations from Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Japan Credit Bureau and China UnionPay to manufacture financial smart cards under each of these payment processing systems. It manufactures cards for most of the big Chinese banks, as well as for telecommunications operations in Europe, South America, Africa and Asia.

精工科技是中國國內爲數不多獲得維薩(Visa)、萬事達(Mastercard)、美國運通(American Express)、日本國際信用卡公司(Japan Credit Bureau)和中國銀聯(China UnionPay)授權的金融智能卡製造商之一，因此該公司的增長前景一片光明。該公司還爲中國多數大型銀行製造卡片，同時也爲在歐洲、南美、非洲和亞洲的電信業務製造卡片。

Credit card usage is expected to continue expanding, as the government rolls out market-oriented reforms in the country's financial sector and banks are forced to improve service to their customers. Currently, some Chinese can't get credit cards from their banks because they can't provide verifiable income. Banks also find it tough to generate profits from using credit cards because they lack the skills to target customers with the most attractive profiles for such cards.

隨着政府在金融領域推行市場化改革，商業銀行因此有了改善服務的壓力，預計信用卡的使用範圍將繼續擴大。目前有一部分中國人還無法從銀行辦理信用卡，因爲這些人不能提供固定收入證明。商業銀行通過信用卡業務獲利的難度也較大，因爲這些銀行缺乏鎖定那些信用記錄最好的客戶來使用信用卡的能力。