Despite the global financial crisis has attacked South Korean investors in Cambodia, including real estate and construction industry, the KB Financial Group, which is the South Korean-based financial holding company, announced that Kookmin Bank PLC, the biggest lender in South Korea, opened its operation Thursday in Cambodia, buying a 51% share of Khmer Union Bank.
Khmer Union Bank, set up in July 2008, had been changed its name as Kookmin Bank that has a total of $13 million in financial assets. All commercial banks will be required to triple capital to $37.5 million by the end of 2010.
According to the a bank statement, Kookmin bank purchased a 51 percent share in Khmer Union Bank for 10 billion won, about $7.9 million. Bank is hoped to offer services that will include mortgages, consumer and corporate loans as well as investment banking services in Cambodian market. The bank also has plans to open seven branches in other Cambodian cities like Siem Reap, and Sihanoukville provinces.
Sohn Young Hwan, senior executive vice president at Kookmin Bank said that Cambodia has the most potential for growth opportunities of all of the Asean countries, reported the Cambodia Daily.
“Kookmin Bank Cambodia is the fifth commercial bank from South Korea [in Cambodia], whose total share capital is 100 percent held by Korean shareholders,” said Chea Chanto, governor of the National Bank of Cambodia, at the launch on Thursday, reported the Phnom Penh Post.
“The participation of Kookmin Bank in Cambodia’s market truly reflects the increasing confidence of Korean investor in the banking system in Cambodia,” Chea Chanto, governor of the National Bank of Cambodia was quoted by the Cambodia Daily.
Sohn Young Hwan said Thursday that Cambodia’s financial sector is attracting interest in South Korea. “We are the lender in Korea, and we plan to extend the unit’s customer base from local companies to Cambodian investors by introducing private banking and other retail services,” he said. “We’ll focus our loans on small and medium enterprises,” reported the Phnom Penh Post.
The headquarter of Kookmin Bank Cambodia is located on Samdech Pan Street in Daun Penh district, opposite the Korean embassy, in Phnom Penh.
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