Citigroup Buys S.Korean Bank for $2.7 Bln
SEOUL (Reuters) - In the largest ever foreign investment in South Korea (news - web sites), Citigroup Inc said on Monday it would buy KorAm Bank for $2.7 billion to extend its push into emerging markets.
The world's largest financial services company beat out Standard Chartered Plc to buy South Korea's sixth-largest bank from a consortium led by U.S. private equity firm Carlyle Group and J.P. Morgan, which more than doubled its money on its investment.
New York-based Citigroup has not followed U.S. rivals such as Bank of America and J.P. Morgan in bulking up on consumer bank acquisitions in its domestic market. Instead, it said it's looking for growth in Asia's developing markets after already buying banks in Mexico and Poland.
"It's a large under-served market from our point of view. The Korean financial services market is only opening now," Deryck Maughan, chief executive of Citigroup International, told Reuters.
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Citigroup Buys S.Korean Bank for $2.7 Bln
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