Hanoi (VNA) - Prudential Plc on January 23 announcedthat it had reached an agreement to sell 100 percent of its PrudentialVietnam Finance Company (PVFC) to Shinhan Card Co Ltd, a subsidiary of theShinhan Financial Group (Shinhan), at a cost of 151 million USD.

The United Kingdom-based financial services group’s PVFC was launched in2006 as the first foreign non-bank financial institution licensed for consumerfinance lending in Vietnam. Today, it is the fourth-largest consumerfinance company by outstanding loan balance. 

“Prudential and Shinhan will work closely to ensure a smooth transition of thebusiness. PVFC remains committed to all of its customer obligations andoperations will continue as normal until the transaction has been completed,”Prudential said in a statement.

It remains fully committed to the Vietnamese market through its life insurancebusiness, Prudential Vietnam Assurance Private Limited, and asset managementbusiness, Eastspring Investments Fund Management Company (Vietnam).

“PVFC is a high-quality business, but it is not core to our strategy in Vietnam.We are delighted that Shinhan will be able to lead this consumer financebusiness through to the next stage of its development. Vietnam remains anattractive and important market to Prudential where we have high-quality andfast-growing life insurance and asset management operations,” Nic Nicandrou,Chief Executive of Prudential Corporation Asia, said.

“As part of this transaction, we are further expanding our regional platformthrough the new long-term bancassurance partnership with Shinhan in both Vietnamand Indonesia to continue serving the growing savings and protection needs ofthe Asian population,” he said.

Shinhan is a financial institution in the Republic of Korea with a diversifiedbusiness portfolio across banking, credit cards, securities brokerage, lifeinsurance, asset management and leasing. It is one of the largest financialinstitutions by market capitalisation in the RoK, and Shinhan Card is thelargest credit card company in the country.

Shinhan has had a presence in Vietnam since 1993.  

Last year, Shinhan Bank Vietnam, a wholly owned unit of Shinhan Bank, alsoacquired the retail division of ANZ, a major Australian bank, in Vietnam.

Currently, Prudential Finance Vietnam, FE Credit, HomeCredit and HDSaigon arefour companies ruling the Vietnamese consumer finance market. According to StoxPlus,the total outstanding loan of consumer finance companies was more than 56trillion VND (2.47 billion USD) at the end of 2016.-VNA