KUALA LUMPUR (July 17): Shares of XOX Bhd attracted heavy interest today, soaring 47.83% to reach a four-year high of 17 sen in afternoon trade after the mobile network service provider announced a micro-finance partnership with Wetek Technology (M) Sdn Bhd yesterday.

At 3.55pm, XOX shares pared some of its gains, settling at 14.5 sen, a four sen or 38.1% increase over its opening price, giving the company a market capitalisation of RM203.12 million.

It was also the most active stock on Bursa Malaysia today with around 754.59 million shares traded, representing a huge increase over its 200-day average trading volume of 31.52 million.

XOX announced in a statement yesterday that its subsidiary XOX Media Sdn Bhd inked an agreement with Wetek, with their service targeted at 2.2 million XOX subscribers and is slated to launch in the near future.

This service will be extended to individuals and small businesses without access to conventional banking and related services by populating XOX’s eWallet for usage in the XOX Digital Marketplace, said the company.

“This industry has been growing at an annual rate of 11.5% over the past few years and projected to reach US$146.8 billion by 2021,” XOX commented on micro-finance, referencing the Microfinance Barometer 2019.

Micro-financing is a good strategy to populate eWallet with funds especially in the challenging environment of eWallet adoption nationwide, the company said.

Wetek, which has operations in Vietnam and aims to be the market leader for micro-financing in Southeast Asia, is budgeting RM1 billion to finance low-income Malaysians.

"We are pleased to be in partnership with XOX, who can provide access to a very good initial market segment of their subscribers. XOX also has strong infrastructure in its dealership channels and technology to grow the relatively unserved market in Malaysia," Wetek director Howard Leung Hao said, adding that the partnership is a huge opportunity for Wetek.

XOX believes the partnership will provide a vital component in the XOX eWallet ecology, enabling subscribers to participate in the new normal of a touchless and online economy.

“XOX is committed to promote digitisation among subscribers to enhance auto top-up, Fintech, entrepreneurship and eCommerce. Together with the group’s insurance offerings, the microfinancing business is in line with the group's concerted effort to move into proper Fintech business to create additional revenue streams,” the company said.