Before the Spring Festival, a notable event occurred: JD Group took a controlling stake in "the first wholly foreign-owned consumer finance company"—Home Credit Consumer Finance Co., Ltd. The new ownership structure of Home Credit Consumer Finance will be as follows: Guangzhou Jingdong Trading Co., Ltd. holds %; NetBank (Beijing) Commerce Service Co., Ltd. holds %; China Foreign Economy and Trade Trust Co., Ltd. holds %; Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area State-Owned Assets Management Co., Ltd. holds %; Bank of Tianjin holds %; while Home Credit Group, the former parent company of Home Credit Consumer Finance, retains only % of the shares.

Among them, Jingdong Trade and Wangyin Online are both subsidiaries of the JD Group, with their combined shareholding ratio amounting to %.

"The Strongest Consumer Finance" Retreats

The parent company group behind Home Credit Consumer Finance ( ) traces its history back to [year] and is one of the largest private equity firms in the Czech Republic, also referred to as the "largest investment group." Its investment business spans finance, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and technology. Home Credit went through its own expansion phase—entering the Kazakhstan and Russian markets in [year], China in [year], Vietnam in [year], India in [year], and Indonesia and the Philippines in [year].

In the year, with the launch of China's consumer finance pilot program, Home Credit Consumer Finance was officially established, becoming one of the first companies in the country to obtain a consumer finance license and the only fully foreign-owned consumer finance company. By the end of the year, Home Credit Consumer Finance had total assets amounting to billions of yuan, with revenues exceeding billions, making it the only licensed consumer finance company to achieve revenues of ten billion yuan that year, showcasing its position as the "strongest consumer finance" entity.

However, the financial and total asset changes of Home Credit's consumer finance division reveal a complete reversal in its financial data after the new year, with a downward trend.

Here is the direct translation of the provided content into English: **Home Credit Consumer Finance Financial Performance** **Year** | **Operating Revenue (100 million yuan)** | **Net Profit Attributable to Parent Company (100 million yuan)** ... | ... | ... ... | ... | ... ... | ... | ... (Note: The original text contained incomplete or placeholder data marked by dots and symbols, which have been preserved in the translation.)

Jieshun Consumer Finance Total Assets Change Table (According to Wind Data) Year | Total Assets (100 million yuan) | Year-on-Year Change (%) ... | ... | ...

While its performance plummeted, the scale of non-performing assets divested by Home Credit Consumer Finance was staggering. Based on publicly available information, over the years, Home Credit Consumer Finance has sold non-performing assets totaling hundreds of billions of yuan—specifically, the write-offs of non-performing loans from year to year were: XX billion yuan, XX billion yuan, XX.X billion yuan, and XX.X billion yuan. In a single year, the total write-offs amounted to XX.X billion yuan.

In one year, Home Credit Consumer Finance transferred asset packages worth billions of yuan. By the end of the year, Home Credit Consumer Finance planned to sell a non-performing retail loan asset package totaling hundreds of millions of yuan in principal and interest. This asset package was listed for auction on [specific date] and was eventually sold for hundreds of millions of yuan on [specific date], with the transaction price being [specific multiple] times the principal and interest.

On [specific date], Home Credit Consumer Finance announced a non-performing personal loan asset package worth billions of yuan, which was ultimately acquired by Jiangxi Ruijing Financial Asset Management Co., Ltd. for [specific amount] billion yuan. In the [specific quarter] of [specific year], Home Credit Consumer Finance disposed of [specific number] million loans, involving over [specific number] million individuals, with cumulative non-performing asset transfers exceeding [specific amount] billion yuan, including a [specific amount] billion yuan non-performing asset package. (Note: The original text contains placeholders like "年月日" and incomplete figures such as ".亿元." For a precise translation, these should be replaced with specific dates and numerical values.)

In the first half of the year, Home Credit Consumer Finance sold off a non-performing personal loan asset package worth billions of yuan at a discounted price, breaking its own record for disposal scale. On [specific date], Home Credit Consumer Finance planned to transfer a non-performing loan asset package worth [specific amount] million yuan. On [specific date], Home Credit Consumer Finance Co., Ltd. issued an announcement for the transfer of non-performing loans (personal consumer loans) for the [specific period] of the year, involving nearly [specific amount] billion yuan in non-performing personal loan assets.

Lessons and Opportunities

Since the beginning of the year, Home Credit withdrew from Russia, selling its assets locally. Subsequently, it also divested its operations in the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, and India. Against this backdrop, the change of ownership at Home Credit's consumer finance business in China appears to be part of the company's overall contraction. According to the group's statement, Home Credit still intends to focus on Western markets.

The decline of Home Credit in China demonstrates that its business model has encountered challenges. The pandemic was the immediate trigger for Home Credit's issues. However, the extent of its collapse also reveals fatal flaws in its approach.

The corporate strategy of the group is officially stated as follows—Home Credit targets "areas that others overlook or consider too risky." This strategy spans sectors such as finance, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and technology. For Home Credit's consumer finance business, "areas that others overlook or consider too risky" refer to its focus on serving individuals with little to no credit history.

When lending to this demographic, Home Credit Consumer Finance can obtain higher interest rates and fees, but the risks are also greater. During a market boom, the gains for Home Credit Consumer Finance become more evident. However, once the market declines, its customer base is also the most likely to encounter problems, leading to a cascade of chain reactions.

As early as years ago, Home Credit was exposed by CCTV for issuing loans to college students with annual interest rates exceeding %, and was suspected of violent debt collection. According to statistics from the Black Cat Complaint Platform, the number of complaints against Home Credit has exceeded ,, with the majority involving issues such as high interest rates and improper debt collection practices.

Behind the high interest rates and improper debt collection lies the problematic non-performing assets. In other words, the asset condition of Home Credit has deteriorated. The loss of risk control is backfiring on Home Credit.

Meanwhile, the consumer finance market in China is also continuously expanding. As of this year, there are already several consumer finance licenses issued in the market. Jiexin Consumer Finance is facing increasingly fierce competition from various competitors in the market.

To make matters worse, in [specific month and year], the founder of Home Credit Group, Kellner, tragically died in a plane crash. The company, already in crisis, lost its most powerful leader. Home Credit was left directionless.

Given that Home Credit's consumer finance assets are in a less-than-ideal state, will JD really fare better after taking over? In reality, Home Credit has its strengths, particularly in exploring digital means for loan management and risk control. However, this aspect has been overshadowed by the massive disposal of non-performing assets. Digitalization and intelligentization are the core of future competition in consumer finance. Therefore, JD's acquisition of Home Credit is not just about obtaining a license.

On the other hand, another direction for the development of consumer finance is the innovation in consumer finance and the construction of a new ecosystem. This involves the intelligent integration of forms such as e-commerce, logistics, and communities. This is an area where Home Credit is relatively short, while JD.com is more extensive. The construction of a new ecosystem will be the part where the new Home Credit relies on JD.com for deep expansion, opening up a larger market space.

Therefore, JD.com's takeover of Home Credit's consumer finance business is not just a passive acquisition but a new starting point for the future transformation of consumer finance through the integration of business models.