[THE INVESTOR] Shinhan Financial Group said on Jan. 23 that its credit card unit has agreed to pay US$150 million for a 100 percent stake in Prudential Vietnam Finance Co. in the latest move to secure new growth engines in Vietnam.
Shinhan Card signed the deal with the Hanoi-based finance company, a subsidiary of Britain’s largest insurer Prudential, 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 Korean market.
By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (
ssh@heraldcorp.com)