Seoul, Feb 23: Citigroup said on Monday it would buy South Korea's Koram Bank for $2.7 billion, extending the bank's push into emerging markets in the largest foreign investment in Asia's fourth biggest economy. Citigroup beat out Standard Chartered Plc to buy South Korea's sixth-largest bank from a consortium led by U.S. private equity fund Carlyle Group and from the stock market.
New York-based Citigroup, the world's largest financial services company, is looking for further growth in Asia's developing markets after 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.
"There are a whole series of markets... that are now opening to foreign direct investment. What we have accomplished in Mexico with Banamex or Poland with Handlowy we feel we can accomplish in a number of Asian countries." Bureau Report