Shinhan Bank, a unit of South Korea's Shinhan Financial Group, said on Monday it is interested in buying shares in Vietcombank of Vietnam, which plans to go public either this month or in August.
Shinhan, having completed its $7.2 billion acquisition of the country's top credit card firm LG Card in 2006, is among the South Korean banks that have been eyeing Vietnam and other parts of Asia to make up for slow domestic loan growth.
Shinhan has already set up a joint venture with Vietcombank in Vietnam.
"We are interested in the IPO of Vietcombank," said Shinhan Bank spokesman Yoon Yong-jin. "But nothing has been decided in detail."
The Maeil Business Newspaper reported on Monday, without citing a source, that Shinhan was seeking to buy a 4 percent stake in the Vietnamese bank for about $100 million, making it one of the biggest overseas investments by a South Korean bank.
State-run Vietcombank, with assets of $10.7 billion and 68 branches nationwide, accounts for 10.5 percent of the country's market lending and handled 24 percent of its trade payments.
South Korean financial services companies are keen on buying shares in Vietnamese counterparts through their public offerings.
Industrial Bank of Korea is also moving to buy a stake in a leading Vietnamese bank, a senior official told Reuters in May.
Last week, South Korean brokerage Bridge Securities Co. Ltd. said it would buy 20 percent of Vietnam's Hai Phong Securities Co. (HPC) for $13 million.
Source: Reuters
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