SEOUL ? ?State-owned Korea Development Bank is close to acquiring HSBC Holdings PLC?s (HBC) retail banking business in South Korea, KDB Financial Group Chairman Kang Man-soo said Monday.
Kang told reporters an agreement with HSBC is likely to be signed soon.
Korea Development Bank, the flagship unit of the group, will be the entity taking over HSBC?s retail banking unit?s assets and debt, a KDB Financial spokesman said.
KDB Financial is expanding into the retail banking sector ahead of a stock-market listing that has been planned for completion before year?s end.
KDB Financial Group was formed in October 2009 after the government transferred its policy-banking functions to Korea Finance Corp. Its strengths are in investment banking and corporate financing.
HSBC said last year that it will review whether to pull out of markets where the bank?s retail businesses are too small or too inefficient.
HSBC?s South Korean unit wasn?t immediately available to comment.
It had 11 branches in Korea with assets totaling KRW30.02 trillion ($25.6 billion) as of the end of June, while Korea Development Bank has 64 branches.
Korea Finance Corp. owns 90.3% of KDB Financial Group and the Ministry of Strategy and Finance holds the rest. The South Korean government has said it hopes to privatize KDB Group by May 2014.
Copyright ? 2012 Dow Jones Newswires
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