The Company was incorporated on 10 January 1961and was converted into a public company on 2 September 1964.Its shares were listed on the SGX Mainboard prior to the acquisition in 1979 by Hong Leong Finance Limited (HLF) (now known as Target Realty Limited). It was re-admitted to the official list of the SGX Mainboard on 10 July 1981.The principal activities of the Company are to accept deposits from the public and to use these deposits together with its own capital resources in the provision of finance, including hire purchase, leasing, factoring, mortgages and other secured loans in the commercial, industrial and consumer sectors.On 1 September 2001, the Company acquired and amalgamated the finance business undertaking of Target Realty Limited with its own undertaking pursuant to a scheme of arrangement and amalgamation. As part of the merger, the Company and HLF also reorganised their non-core financial assets, comprising property assets, resulting in the disposal by the Company of certain property assets to HLF which were not intended to be the core financial assets of the merged finance business. Following the merger, the Company is now the nation's largest finance company.In 2005, HLF necessary approvals from the authorities to expand its services to include underwriting, distribution of third-party insurance products and provision of foreign exchange services to its customers.The ultimate holding company of the Company is deemed to be Hong Leong Investment Holdings Pte Ltd, a company incorporated in Singapore.