[Shinhan Card website]
SEOUL, Jan. 23 (Aju News) -- Shinhan Financial Group Co., a major South Korean banking group, said Tuesday that its credit card unit has agreed to pay 150 million US dollars for a 100 percent stake in Prudential Vietnam Finance Co. in the latest move to secure new growth engines in Vietnam.
Shinhan Card Co. signed the deal with the Hanoi-based finance company, a subsidiary of Britain's largest insurer Prudential Plc., earlier in the day. "The stake purchase is aimed at expanding the consumer credit business in Vietnam," said a company official who asked not to be named.
Last year, Shinhan Bank Vietnam, a wholly owned unit of Shinhan Bank, acquired the retail division of ANZ, a major Australian bank, in Vietnam. Shinhan Financial Group has stepped up its efforts to expand its operations overseas in recent years to generate a new cash cow as it has suffered low margins and low growth in the nearly saturated South Korean market.
(Yonhap)
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
