SBI Group has been expanding its business development overseas under the slogan “from Japan’s SBI to the World's SBI”. Currently, the SBI Group is promoting the integration of its domestic and overseas operations and further increase the profitability of its overseas operations.
Key focus areas include the rapidly growing ASEAN. These areas’ economies have already achieved significant scale and are seen as having enormous future potential. The basic rule of finance is that funds flow from low-interest to high-interest markets, and from countries with low growth rates to those with high growth rates. While the SBI Group has focused on expanding its business in Southeast Asia since the early days, it will continue to advance its expansion in the future.
Expanding our business on a global scale
We will also prioritize the expansion of our financial services in regions other than Southeast Asia. One example is the expansion of our overseas Japanese equities business based in London whose core role is played by SBI Shinsei International. SBI Shinsei International supplies information about investment and loan projects in Europe and the Middle East to SBI Shinsei Bank. It also provides British investors with information about the Japanese equity market based on surveys and analysis carried out by SBI SECURITIES, as well as corporate access and advisory services. The wide-ranging role of SBI Shinsei International in Europe also includes providing European office functions for SBI Group companies.
Another priority region for the SBI Group is the Middle East, which has become a global money hub. In December 2023, we signed a memorandum of understanding with Aramco, one of the world's largest integrated energy and chemical companies, to consider a business alliance. In February 2024, we established a local subsidiary in the capital city of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, to work towards the further expansion of our business in the Middle East. In May, we have also signed memorandums of understanding with the Saudi Ministry of Investment and several leading companies for partnerships in various fields and are now making steady progress under those agreements. Moreover, we are expanding our business partnerships with leading company in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In January 2024, we began to operate a USD100 million joint venture fund in partnership with SC Ventures, which is an associate of the Standard Chartered Bank, a major British financial institution, to invest in fields such as DeFi and metaverse.
The African region, which is expected rapid growth in the future as the last frontier, is also a key focus for the SBI Group. In November 2023, we concluded a basic strategic capital alliance agreement with Novastar Ventures, a UK venture capital firm that invests in Africa. SBI Holdings will contribute USD40 million to the fund managed by this company and support Japanese investors to invest in the fund, while Novastar will create opportunities for joint investment with the SBI Group and provide information about African markets.
