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Shinhan chief flexes global muscles for '2020 vision'

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Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byoung / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byoung / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

By Park Hyong-ki

Cho Yong-byoung, chairman and chief executive of Shinhan Financial Group, is expected to head overseas on an investor relations (IR) roadshow to present the firm's plan to global investors during the second half of this year, the group said Thursday.

"The group's IR team is set to go to Canada and the United States at the end of this month. Our chairman is still adjusting his schedule for the possible IR trip," said a Shinhan spokesman.

If Cho arranges to go to Canada where his IR team plans to meet potential investors, including Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, it would be his first visit to the country, the spokesman noted.

The Shinhan chief went to New York and Boston last year. He may go and meet global fund managers and investors, including its shareholder BlackRock Fund Advisors, possibly in Chicago.

BlackRock, an asset management company, holds a 5.13 percent stake in Shinhan Financial. The National Pension Service is its biggest shareholder with a 9.55 percent stake, according to the group's audit filing. Foreign investors hold nearly a 70 percent stake in the listed group, according to the Korea Exchange.

Cho has been traveling halfway around the world since his inauguration in March last year, presenting his "2020" vision and strategy for the group to a line of institutional investors and sovereign wealth funds.

Also, the chairman has consolidated the investment banking divisions at Shinhan Bank, Shinhan Investment and Shinhan Life Insurance and Shinhan Capital into a single investment banking unit last year.

This was in line with the 2020 vision to boost its nonbanking and global operations and build Shinhan into one of Asia's leading financial groups. The single unit is called Group & Global Investment Banking Group (GIB).

Cho has been pushing Shinhan's GIB to the forefront, making notable deals since July, 2017.

Late last year, it acquired $190 million debt in One Worldwide Plaza, an office building in Manhattan, through Shinhan Alternative Investment Management and Shinhan Life.

It invested in the debt in a refinancing scheme managed by Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank for RXR Realty and SL Green Realty's $1.7 billion acquisition of One Worldwide from New York REIT. Shinhan Life sourced the deal for the group's IB unit, while Bae, Kim & Lee was Shinhan Alternative's legal adviser.

Also, GIB has been chosen as a preferred buyer for an office building valued at 500 billion won in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province. In May, it underwrote debt securities of Gelex, Vietnam's electrical equipment company.

The global IB unit has been expanding its operations in Japan, Vietnam, Singapore and Australia, seeking opportunities in real estate, infrastructure and other alternative investment assets.

Under the 2020 vision, the group aims to increase the ratio of overseas revenue to total sales to 20 percent by 2020 through inorganic growth. It currently stands at 13 percent.

To achieve that goal, Cho is pursuing dynamic growth through mergers and acquisitions (M&As) both at home and abroad.

After its success in Vietnam, the group is now fixing its eyes on Indonesia and India for overseas expansion. Domestically, it is seeking to buy an insurer and a securities firm to bolster its non-banking sector.

Shinhan Financial posted a consolidated net profit of 1.8 trillion won in the first half of this year, down about 5 percent from a year ago, according to its regulatory filing. However, its net profit of some 950 billion won in the second quarter marked its highest in eight years.





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