PT ORIX Indonesia Finance: Customer Satisfaction - Number One

PT ORIX Indonesia Finance: Customer Satisfaction - Number One Priority

Customer satisfaction! This is one of the keys to success for PT ORIX Indonesia Finance (ORIF), a company providing leasing services. It has enjoyed a remarkable achievement in its business in Indonesia in the past three decades, and owes much to customer satisfaction.

President Director of ORIF, Yoshinori Matsuoka, is convinced of the truth of the age-old, but still relevant, adage in the business world that the customer is king. "My mission is to meet our clients every day," he said.

ORIF is a joint venture undertaking between Japan's ORIX Corporation (85%) and the Bank Indonesia Welfare Foundation (15%). Established in April 1975, the company has shown a dynamic growth and is a leader in the financing service in Indonesia. "Not many Japanese companies in this business, and who have partnered with Indonesian companies, have been able to survive.

There are only a few such companies that have survived the '1997 monetary crisis," Matsuoka said.

ORIF has managed to survive, Matsuoka said, because it can provide funds at a lower cost. The company has gone through a long process to reach this stage. At first, the company, which was called PT Orient Bina Usaha Leasing (OBUL), was a joint venture undertaking between Orient Leasing Co. Ltd. (OLC) and PT Bina Usaha Indonesia. OBUL, the pioneer in the leasing industry in Indonesia, has developed various leasing products.

In 1982, it opened its first branch office in Surabaya and now it has a total of nine branch offices, spread throughout Bandung, Semarang, Solo, Medan, Palembang, Central Jakarta, South Jakarta and North Jakarta

In 1989, Orient Leasing Co. Ltd. changed its name to ORIX Corporation while OBUL became PT ORIX Bina Usaha Leasing (also OBUL in short). Three years later, after obtaining a license to deal in the multi-financing business in November 1991 and increasing its capital to Rp 30 billion, OBUL became ORIX Indonesia Finance (ORIF)

In August 1997, ORIF raised its equity to Rp 100 billion. With greater capital, the company can develop its business in various areas such as consumer financing, corporate financing and operating leases, aside from providing financial leasing services.

"In the future, through the global network of the ORIX Corporation, we are determined to facilitate entrepreneurs' needs for capital, particularly in other Asian countries," said Kenro Seishima, Director Executive Officer of ORIF.

It was not just a dream, because ORIX Group, a giant multinational company now controls a network of 202 consolidated companies and 74 affiliated companies in 24 countries, is now operating as a dynamic and coordinated entity in an attempt to make ORIX a leading company in providing innovative services.

ORIX Corporation, set up in 1964 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in 1998, is Japan's 12th company and 2nd financial institution listed in NYSE.

Generally, ORIF's business areas go into four divisions: (i) Financial Lease; (ii) Consumer Finance; (iii) Corporate Finance and (iv) Operating Lease.

Finance Leasing, which is ORIF's main business, provides financing for heavy-duty equipment, industrial machinery and motorized vehicles. The company's consumer financing division provides consumer financing for products like automobiles and computers.

Meanwhile, the Corporate Finance Division, which was established in 1991, will fulfill the demand of large companies for capital goods.

The Operating Lease Division, which was set up in 1996, provides leasing of vehicles and IT sets with various added values for the clients. This division, for example, leases new automobiles of famous makes from Europe, the United States and Japan. During the leasing period, a client only has to pay for gasoline, toll road charges, parking fees and the cost of car wash. All costs related to maintenance (damage and routine service), insurance, towing, the renewal of the license plate, substitute automobiles and 24-hour services in Indonesian, English or Japanese, will be borne by ORIF through its branch offices in Java and Sumatra. When a contract terminates, the client can renew the contract or return the automobile to ORIF.

If a company makes use of a business leasing service, it will avoid such problems as depreciation and inflation. More importantly, a leasing system of this type will not trouble the company's cash flow because the goods obtained on lease will not be considered as assets in the company's accounting records.

"In short, a business leasing service will maximize a company's profit," said Seishima.

Now employing around 300 people and securing total assets of some Rp 2.5 trillion, ORIF, which enjoyed a before-tax profit of Rp 135 billion as per March 2004, is Indonesia's largest joint- venture leasing company today.

ORIF is optimistic that it will continue to show great progress in the coming years. Its business plan for the next three years is as follows: - To raise its assets threefold to Rp 5 trillion - To strengthen its corporate financing division by providing various products that companies or employees of the companies need - To start with ship financing; - To facilitate the capital needs of entrepreneurs, particularly in Asian countries, through the global network of ORIX Corporation

ORIF has remained true to its commitment to increase its business volume by raising its equity to Rp 420 billion in March 2005.