MUFG affiliate Jaccs acquires 49% of Singapore’s CarTimes Capital as part of regional expansion
This follows a similar move in Malaysia last year as Jaccs increases its automotive footprint in South-east Asia to six markets
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[SINGAPORE] Japan Consumer Credit Service (Jaccs), a consumer finance and credit company based in Tokyo, has acquired 1.5 million shares – a 49 per cent stake – in CarTimes Capital for around 1.5 billion yen (S$12.1 million).
The acquisition was finalised on Tuesday (Apr 7) at a signing ceremony at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre.
“As one of our key strategies, we are working to grow and expand our overseas business, and we are now entering Singapore, our sixth Asean member country,” said Jaccs in a Tokyo Stock Exchange bourse filing issued in February on the then proposed transaction.
Prior to the agreement, CarTimes Capital was the automotive finance arm of Singapore group CarTimes Automobile, whose majority shareholder is Carsome, with a minority stake held by Eddie Loo, the Singaporean founder and current managing director of CarTimes.
Moving forward, Jaccs will hold 49 per cent of CarTimes Capital with Carsome holding the rest.
This is Jaccs’ second investment in Malaysia automotive platform Carsome and the South-east Asia automotive sector in recent times.
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In April 2025, Jaccs took a 49 per cent stake in Carsome Capital, the financing arm of Carsome for 3.5 billion Japanese yen.
Outside of its investments in Carsome, Jaccs provides car and motorcycle finance in Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Cambodia. Including its recent investments in Carsome, that means it is present in a total of six countries in South-east Asia.
Founded in 1954, it provides instalments, credit card and automotive loans, and is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. It is partly owned by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), which is Japan’s largest financial group and owner of MUFG Bank.
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Ryo Murakami, president and representative director of Jaccs, said at the ceremony: “Through this collaboration, we are not simply expanding access to financing. We are strengthening how financing is done.” By combining CarTimes’ understanding of the local market with Jaccs’ global expertise, “we can introduce more structured, data driven, and flexible financing solutions”, he added.
Murakami told The Business Times that the company has experience in retail finance and is looking to expand its investments outside of Japan, especially in Asia, citing the expanding economies of Singapore and Malaysia as opportunities.
He added that he sees value in Carsome’s automotive ecosystem, and that Jaccs will consider following the group as it expands into other countries in the region.
Online car trading platform Carsome was founded in 2015 by Eric Cheng and is headquartered in Malaysia and currently operates in that country, as well as Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. It acquired Singapore’s CarTimes Group in 2022.
Cheng, Carsome’s group CEO, told BT that the company aims to continue building its businesses in its current markets, but that it could also cooperate with Jaccs to enter other South-east Asian countries.
Additional reporting by Leow Ju-Len
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