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Building Asia is a collection of business stories on CNA that examines the financial forces driving Asia’s position as an economic powerhouse.
HAID Group – Growing success in ASEAN was first aired on 28 August 2023 under the Building Asia with UOB series. Understand how HAID leveraged UOB’s strong regional connectivity, deep sectorial expertise, and holistic banking solutions to solidify its presence across ASEAN.
Transcript
Adaline Zheng (Head, Wholesale Banking, UOB China):
HAID is one of the global leaders in the animal feed industry, especially in the aquatic feed sector, and today you are operating in seven ASEAN markets.
Yang Shao Lin (Chief Financial Officer, Guangdong Haid Group Co., Ltd):
That’s right. We have over 600 subsidiaries and more than 35,000 employees around the world. In 2012, we set up our first overseas factory in Vietnam and today, we have nine factories over there with another two coming along. We are very optimistic about our future developments.
Adaline Zheng:
Our relationship with HAID started off in Vietnam where we provided credit for the expansion. From there, we continued to work with HAID in its expansion further into ASEAN.
As a deeply rooted regional bank, UOB leverages on our ASEAN footprint as well as our sector and market expertise to help HAID better understand the regulatory policies and economic environment of each ASEAN market.
Yang Shao Lin:
Yes, HAID faced a few challenges in our expansion out of China. With UOB providing us with a central platform to view all our cross-border transactions we could overcome our challenges managing multiple bank accounts across borders and our foreign exchange risk.
Adaline Zheng:
HAID has an animal feed factory in Indonesia and is expanding into animal husbandry. We are one of the first banks approved by the Indonesian government to provide a direct exchange facility between the Renminbi and Indonesian Rupiah. As a result, HAID is able to achieve foreign exchange savings through UOB.
Yang Shao Lin:
HAID has also received recognition from the Indonesian government for our positive ESG impact.
Adaline Zheng:
This makes you eligible for the bank’s green financing in support of your ESG ambitions.
Yang Shao Lin:
Yes, we secured green financing for a current project in Indonesia. All thanks to UOB for making it happen.
We want to be in a better position to expand globally and to do that, we need a regional headquarters. We are looking at setting up an R&D centre, a trading centre and a regional treasury centre in Singapore.
Adaline Zheng:
As a bank headquartered in Singapore, we are honoured to provide support. So far, we have helped connect HAID to local government and trade bodies in Singapore.
Yang Shao Lin:
I think UOB is an excellent choice for Chinese enterprises to expand into ASEAN and beyond to the rest of the world.
