KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 4): PUC Bhd's wholly-owned subsidiary Wealth Pursuit Sdn Bhd has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today with Yayasan Pekerja Malaysia (YAPEM) to provide micro financing to YAPEM members.

The signing of the MoU comes on the heels of the company’s proposed takeover of Pictureworks Holdings Sdn Bhd, which specialiases in imagery capture and distribution platforms, for RM168 million through a share plus cash deal.

In today’s filing with Bursa Malaysia, PUC said that YAPEM will facilitate all operations to implement the deduction of salary program to manage its respective members’ repayment of the micro financing to Wealth Pursuit.

Under the MoU, YAPEM agreed to appoint Wealth Pursuit or any of PUC's nominated subsidiaries to develop an automated system as a platform for YAPEM and its members to participate in the micro financing.

PUC noted the parties have agreed to collaborate and work together in which Wealth Pursuit will be the exclusive partner for the initiative for two years, with an option to renew for a further period of two years, according to the filing.

PUC said the MoU serves as an opportunity for the company to expand its financial services business by utilising the existing money lending licence.

"Through this collaboration, YAPEM will be able to provide micro financing facilities as an alternative financing option to its members. The collaboration also serves as an opportunity for the company to extend other products and services within PUC group to YAPEM members," it said.

Wealth Pursuit is a financial services arm of PUC which is principally engaged in the businesses of money lending, trading of financial products, selling of software solution related to financial products business, insurance agency and provision of training.

Shares of PUC closed unchanged today at 11 sen with a market capitalisation of RM211.27 million.