Access Financial Services Ltd (AFS) yesterday announced that it has completed the acquisition of 100 per cent of the outstanding shares of Embassy Loans Inc, a Florida-based finance company, at a cost of US$6.4 million.

The transaction which was completed on December 14, 2018 was funded from the proceeds of a $900-million global bond which was issued in October 2018, shortly before the microfinance institution announced its intent to acquire the Florida-based company.

“The acquisition of Embassy is in keeping with AFS’s long-term strategy to diversify the company’s operations and revenue streams into markets where profitable opportunities for growth are identified” AFS’s Chief Executive Officer, Marcus James said in a statement on the Jamaica Stock Exchange.

“We are very excited by the acquisition as it provides us with a solid platform for expansion in North America. Embassy has a solid portfolio, tenured management team and robust IT systems,” he continued.

Embassy Loans Inc, which was founded in 2006, is a consumer finance company which offers auto equity loans throughout the state of Florida in North America.

AFS’s acquisition of Embassy Loan marks the company’s first purchase outside of Jamaica. In 2015, AFS acquired the loan portfolio of Asset Management Company Ltd, a subsidiary of Proven Investments Ltd, for $439 million, following Proven’s purchase of 135,239,271 units or 49.27 per cent of participating voting shares in AFS.

The entity then struck a $180-million deal for Damark Ltd, a company primarily serving government workers, shortly before acquiring the loan portfolio, fixed assets and trade name of Micro Credit Ltd for $80.7 million in 2017.

Today AFS operates from 25 branch locations across the island including its subsidiaries.

For the second quarter ending September 2018, AFS recorded net profit of $179 million compared to $158 million a quarter earlier. Interest income from loans of the company also grew to $384.5 million over 2017’s $312.5 million.

Total assets of the company stood at $3.9 billion while cash and cash equivalents totalled $225.4 million, less than half of the $464.6 million AFS posted for the comparative period of 2017.

— Karena Bennett