Saudi franchise retailer Fas Labs, owned by Fawaz Abdulaziz Alhokair Co. (“Alhokair”), and shopping centre owner and operator Arabian Centres Company have teamed up with valU to expand the buy-now, pay-later platform in Saudi Arabia through Fas Finance.
The partnership agreement will result in FAS Finance being 65 percent owned by FAS Labs and 35 percent by valU. FAS Labs was recently established to lead the joint digital initiatives of Alhokair and ACC, offering Saudi customers a range of accessible and customisable digital consumer finance solutions, to build and scale a fully integrated shopping platform that engages consumers throughout the entire purchase journey, from pre-purchase to post-purchase.
ValU’s launch in KSA comes as a natural progression of our strong partnership with Alhokair and is our first move outside of Egypt with other similar moves to follow soon. We will also be utilising our extensive network that we have built with valU for brands that have presence in the Saudi market and extending our services to include them” said Walid Hassouna, CEO of the Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NBFI) platform at EFG Hermes Holding and CEO of valU.
The solutions will also be offered to ACC’s tenants, located across 21 shopping malls in 11 major cities in the Kingdom. ACC will utilize FAS Finance solutions to offer visitors and tenants digital financing solutions across all their shopping malls.
“Saudi Arabia is the largest GCC country with a growing population and a strong economy, offering immense opportunity for valU to cater to a rising consumer need for digital access to finance,” said Karim Awad, Group CEO of EFG Hermes Holding.
FAS Labs obtained preliminary approval to establish FAS Finance as a Shariah-compliant digital consumer finance company from the Saudi Central Bank in January 2022. The final approval and the change in ownership of FAS Finance (previously wholly-owned by FAS Labs) remain subject to final approvals by the regulatory authorities: Saudi Central Bank, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Investment, and General Authority for Competition.
