KUALA LUMPUR, Wednesday, 22 March 2017: CGC and AmBank (M) Berhad (“AmBank”) signed the SME Portfolio Guarantee (“SPG”) agreement today, in order to further enhance its strategic focus in developing and financing the Small and Medium Enterprise (“SME”) segment in Malaysia via AmBank’s SME Banking.
The signing ceremony today is a progression of the ongoing strategic collaboration between AmBank and CGC. Through this partnership, both AmBank and CGC have committed to extend an additional of RM200 million financing for eligible SME businesses.
This marks a continuation of the SME Portfolio Guarantee, which was launched in September 2016; whereby, a sum of RM150 million was allocated and fully subscribed within five months.
Under this scheme, eligible SMEs can apply for financing facilities of up to RM 1 million from AmBank SME for the repayment tenure of up to seven years. Seventy percent of the principal financing amount will be guaranteed by CGC.
The partnership agreement was signed by Dato’ Sulaiman Mohd Tahir, Group Chief Executive Officer of AmBank Group, together with Datuk Mohd Zamree Mohd Ishak, President/Chief Executive Officer of CGC. It was witnessed by Tan Sri Azman Hashim, Chairman of AmBank Group and Dato’ Agil Natt, Chairman of CGC.
Dato’ Sulaiman said, “We are pleased to strengthen our partnership with CGC through this SME Portfolio Guarantee agreement, where we have extended a further sum of RM200 million to support the growing demands of the SME industry and our customers.”
“Overall, AmBank SME Banking and CGC’s SME Portfolio Guarantee Scheme have allocated a total of RM350 million to support the SME businesses in providing working capital financing to qualified borrowers who lack collateral.”
“This partnership is in line with the Bank’s aim to expand our SME space in the market. This is also a part of our bigger aspirations for 2020 and part of this growth is to ensure that creditworthy SMEs have access to financing, for working capital and investment to grow their business.” Dato’ Sulaiman further commented.
AmBank SME business solutions provide innovative resolutions that are suited for SMEs that are looking to expand their business reach and the SME Portfolio Guarantee will be available at all AmBank branches nationwide. The products include Business Premise Loan, Bank Guarantee OTC, AmBank@Work, AmSignature Priority Banking and Business Current Account.
“With the success of the first tranche of RM150 million which we inked with AmBank back in September 2016, we are pleased to collaborate once again with AmBank on a second tranche valued at RM200 million” said CGC’s President / Chief Executive Officer, Datuk Mohd Zamree Mohd Ishak.
“This is our fourth PG strategic partnership with AmBank and to date, we have availed RM950 million worth of financing via our PG scheme. I look forward to many more opportunities to further increase access to financing for SMEs in Malaysia.” said Datuk Zamree.
Zamree further explained that it is imperative for CGC to continuously explore new avenues in providing further access to financing for SMEs, by providing impactful guarantee and financing products.
He added that such initiatives will hasten the achievement of CGC’s aspiration to be the Household Name for SMEs by 2020.