Shinhan Card Co. Ltd. of South Korea plans sell a 14.9% stake in BC Card Co. Ltd. to the country’s second-largest mobile carrier KT Corp., local newspaper The Korea Herald reports.
The deal is contingent on Woori Bank Ltd. successfully completing a transfer of a 20% stake of BC Card to KT, according to the news report, which cites a Shinhan official as the source.
None of the three involved parties responded to PaymentsSource requests for comments by deadline.
Woori, which owns 27.65% of BC Card, recently announced it would be selling much of its shares to KT to give the mobile carrier a 20% stake in the card company by the end of this year (
KT is looking to seal both deals and use the card firms’ networks to expand its smart phone mobile-transaction business, the report notes.
This would not be the first time that a mobile carrier has looked to buy a stake in a credit card company to enter the mobile-payments market in South Korea.
In December, SK Telecom bought a 49% share in Hana Card Co. for 400 billion won (US$350 million). The two parties then launched a mobile-payment service in April (
KT is considering buying more shares in BC Card held by 11 other South Korean banks, the report adds.
BC Card holds a 32% share of the credit card market in South Korea, with more than 52 million cards issued by 11 financial institutions. The company reported a net loss of 48.9 billion won for the first half of 2010.
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