Chairman Kim Gwang-soo of NH Financial Group.

NH Financial Group plans to consider buying a stake investment in the Agri Bank, the largest bank in Vietnam, the group said on March 3, adding that it is part of the company’s drive to speed up its overseas operation centered around southeast Asia.

The group made the decision after Chairman Kim Kwang-soo returned from his eight-day tour of several S.E. Asian countries Feb. 21-28, including Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar. The chairman told his counterpart at the Vietnamese bank that the group is interested in buying a stake, and he was told that the group could do so during the initial public offering (IPO) which will be undertaken by the Central Bank in Vietnam which holds 100 pct stake in Agri Bank, officials of the group said.

The two financial institutions first made a tie-up back in 2013 in which the Korean financial group was allowed to transmit funds without accounts with the Vietnamese bank and the exchange marketing programs, among others.

NH Financial’s thinking is that is can expand that relationship by investing in the Vietnamese bank to strengthen its operation in the S.E. Asian country.

During a visit to Myanmar, he called on HTOO, the largest enterprise in the country, to expand trade between Korea and Myanmar, including boosting imports of Korean farm machinery and the early exchange of the financial transactions related to the bilateral trade, the officials said.

The chairman told the Myanmar business group that NH Financial is ready to cooperate with its financial affiliates in such areas as banking, insurance and lease finance, among others, the officials said.

He also called on other financial institutions in Myanmar to collect first-hand information on their operations and exchange ideas to boost exchanges between Korea and Myanmar. The chairman set his eye on drawing up strategies tailor-made for financial authorities and financial institutions in those countries after his returning from the trip.

The rise of NH Financial Group to the nation’s fourth-largest financial firm has not only reshaped the local financial landscape, but also surprised the critics skeptical of such achievement by the group.

By taking over Woori Investment & Securities, Woori Aviva Life Insurance and Woori Savings Bank, the group has overtaken Woori Financial Group in terms of assets.

“NH Financial is now ready to compete with the industry’s top players,” said officials of the NH Financial Group.

Despite the rise in its financial standing, the group stresses that it will always stand out from its peers due to its financing expertise in the agricultural sector.

“We have a long-standing relationship with local farmers that has formed the bedrock of our current nationwide business network that still places the highest priority on ordinary Koreans,” said Cha Jong-in, an NH Financial spokesman.

NH Financial was launched in 2012, but its beginning goes back to 1961 when its precursor, the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation - or NongHyup - was created to protect the rights of farmers and promote the agricultural industry.

Following NongHyup’s decision spin off its credit business, NH Financial was born in 2012 as a financial holding company with its affiliates in such financial areas as banking, insurance, futures, securities and asset management.
Since then, NH Financial has been steadily expanding in size and scope but no one knew that it would grow so fast that it could take over Woori’s brokerage houses.

Upon completing the 1 trillion won ($966 million) acquisition in June, NH not only became the country’s fourth-largest financial group, but it now controls Korea‘s largest brokerage unit.

NH Financial’s assets are likely to grow to 290 trillion won in the near future, according to industry estimates earlier this year, not far from matching those of KB Financial Group and Hana Financial Group, which hold assets of 296 trillion won and 295 trillion won, respectively.

A photo from a meeting of the officials of NH Bank and Agri Bank held on Feb. 21 at the Vietnamese bank’s head office in Hanoi with Chairman Kim Kwang-soo of NH Financial Group, 6th L, and Board Chairman Trinh Ngoc Khanh of Agribank, 7th L, attending. (Photos: NH Bank)