Aquisition of Vital Rate Sdn Bhd

PRESS RELEASE
March 1 2017

MERCHANTRADE TO CAPTURE 10% OF THE MONEY EXCHANGE MARKET SHARE WITH VITAL RATE ACQUISITION

Kuala Lumpur: March 1, 2017 – Merchantrade Asia Sdn Bhd (Merchantrade), a leading home grown Money Services Business (MSB) provider with the largest agent network in Malaysia, has strengthened its foothold in the money exchange business via the acquisition of Vital Rate Sdn Bhd‘s (VR) business outlets.
With the acquisition, Merchantrade is gearing to capture 10% market share. The money changing industry volume for 2016 is estimated around RM70 billion.
Currently, Merchantrade provides a full spectrum of money services business including remittance and wholesale currency services with 24% market share respectively, while its money exchange services is at 1.7% market share.

Founder and Managing Director of Merchantrade, Ramasamy K Veeran said that the acquisition of VR is in line with the Company’s strategic business goal in capturing the retail market of the money exchange business especially at prime locations.
“The strategic advantage of VR’s business is that it has presence at high-end shopping malls such as Pavilion, KLCC, KL Sentral and other strategic tourist areas, of which Merchantrade can now reach out to a wider demographic of customer base,” said Ramasamy.
“The acquisition will not only expand our network of physical branches which now stands at 84 Merchantrade owned branches, which includes 2 wholesale currency outlets and over 400 agent locations, but will also bring the management talent and relationships with key businesses and customers, especially in the lifestyle category that will further enhance the Company’s capabilities and growth trajectory.

“Merchantrade’s strong brand name and expertise in the MSB industry with VR’s knowledge in currency management will bring added value and advantages to its already strong customer base.

“Capitalising on the robust growth of inbound tourists as well as Malaysians travelling abroad, we aim to build a strong brand in this retail market. Tourism Malaysia’s vision is to achieve 36 million tourists’ arrivals with RM168 billion tourist receipts by 2020. In 2015 alone, there was 25.7 million tourists’ arrivals with RM69.1 billion receipts. This motivates us to quickly move into this segment due to its dynamics and the fact that the tourism industry is a key economic sector for the country.

We will continue to do new and exciting things in line with the growing market”, Ramasamy reiterated.
With this solid branding at shopping malls, Merchantrade is able to provide further convenience for this retail segment as they can now shop and change currencies at competitive rates, made possible by Merchantrade’s strong brand name and technological innovation in the wholesale currency business.

“We want to be a game changer from the current set up to a more lifestyle oriented business where we bring people together, providing end to end lifestyle value chain where our customers can also purchase currencies through our eForex online money exchange which is available on mobile app, and they can later collect their currencies at any pick up points at their preferred locations.

“From the branding perspective, we are shaping the MSB industry landscape to that of a corporate image set-up by providing customers with superior customer service experiences and brand presence at strategic locations,” added Ramasamy.

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