South Korea's Shinhan Bank is looking to invest overseas in order to become one of southeast Asia's biggest banks, according to a report in the Financial Times.
The bank plans to increase the number of its overseas branches from 17 to 30, but is also looking to acquire stakes in foreign financial institutions, or possibly even buy foreign banks outright, said the report.
The move is in response to a slowdown in growth and stalling profits in the South Korean market. Shin Sang-hoon, chief executive of Shinhan, was quoted in the Financial Times as saying: Southeast Asia is the region we’ve been eyeing very closely…Currently, most of the Korean banks earn about 5% of their revenues from overseas operations. But in the future it needs to be substantially increased. I think that is the only path (to countering slowing growth at home).