Chase Manhattan International Finance has agreed to pay $250 million for the Manhattan Card Co. of Hong Kong, of which it already owns 54%.
The Hong Kong company has 600,000 MasterCard and Visa cards with $550 million of receivables. The Chase Manhattan Corp. subsidiary agreed to pay a 64% premium over Manhattan Card's closing stock price Nov. 13.
About 20% of the shares are owned by Citi Pacific, an investment arm of a Chinese company.
A Chase spokesman said that despite recent stock market turmoil, "Hong Kong is a good market for us. We take a long-term view of it." The portfolio, said the spokesman, has a 2% chargeoff rate compared to Chase's 5.5% in the United States.