Woori Bank is set to acquire a Filipino mid-sized savings bank, gearing up its efforts to expand its presence further into the South East Asian financial market.

The South Korean lender announced Wednesday that it received final approval from the Philippine’s financial authority to take over a 51 percent stake in Wealth Development Bank for 30 billion won ($26 million). With the stake purchase, Woori Bank will become the first foreign bank to acquire a local bank in the Philippines since the country opened its financial market to the world in 2014.

The lender will operate Wealth Development Bank jointly with its parent company Vicsal Development Corp. (Vicsal), the fourth largest retailer in the Philippines operating big department stores and supermarkets across the country. In cooperation with Vicsal, Woori Bank aims to increase Wealth Development Bank’s networks by three to four a year to achieve its goal to secure 1.3 million credit card subscribers by 2020 in the country. It also plans to help the bank to become one of the top 10 banks in the country by turning it into a commercial bank.

Following this acquisition, the number of Woori Bank’s overseas networks will increase to 234 in 25 countries, ninth largest in Asia and much more than its local rivals such as Shinhan Bank with 147 networks in 20 countries, KEB Hana Bank with 135 networks in 24 countries and KB Kookmin Bank with 18 networks in 11 countries.

The bank aims to increase the number of its networks in South East Asia to more than 410 networks to become the seventh largest bank in Asia by the number of networks through additional acquisitions by the end of this year. It also plans to establish a German subsidiary and a branch in Poland to accelerate its efforts to tap deeper into the European Union and enter Mexico in which many Korean companies are operating their businesses.

It aims to expand the share of its net profit made by overseas operations from 12 percent as of the third quarter this year to 30 percent by 2020.

As of 2:00 p.m., Woori Bank shares rose 0.8 percent, or 100 won, to 12,500 won in Seoul trading Thursday.

By Park Joon-hyung

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]