Taiwan billionaire, Andre Koo, built a leasing powerhouse by giving credit to industries where banks feared to tread
Over the decade, it built a collection of what’s now called Big Data on every industry it has financed.
The youngest of Jeffrey Sr.’s three sons, Koo started down a different path before becoming chairman of Chailease. Lured by its glossy brochures, he convinced his parents to enroll him at age 14 in the New York Military Academy, whose notable alumni include Donald Trump.Once there, he found he wasn’t prepared for the rigors of military school. “I thought about quitting several times,” he says.
Koo’s first assignment: learn about the divisions under the Chailease brand. Chailease was already filling a vital gap in Taiwan’s financial ecosystem, providing loans to small companies that most banks shunned as too high-risk and low-return to make. As Chailease expanded geographically, it began expanding its offerings, too, adding lease-to-own plans and accounts receivable financing.
The biggest growth, however, has been in mainland China, which represents 37% of its portfolio. After entering the market in 2005, Koo wanted to raise funds for expansion, but Taiwan at the time prohibited investing IPO proceeds on the mainland. So Koo held its IPO in Singapore, making Chailease the first Taiwan company to list there, selling a roughly 27% stake in 2007 for $170 million. After Taiwan lifted its restrictions, Chailease in 2011 delisted from Singapore and relisted in Taiwan.
Leasing in China has also been helped by a restriction since 2016 on so-called shadow banking—from off-balance-sheet lending by banks to corporate lending and peer-to-peer loans. While the crackdown was meant to slow China’s rising debt load, it has also starved small companies of funding, driving them to traditional leasing companies such as Chailease.
Then there’s Taiwan’s national dish, beef noodles. Koo was raised on a recipe perfected by Koo family chef Tang Wen-ghuan, which uses beef shank braised for eight hours in 23 spices. In 2016, he opened C.E.O. Beef Noodle, located near Taipei’s famous skyscraper Taipei 101, to sell the Koo-family favorite.
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