BC Card’s headquarters in Seoul. (image: BC Card)
SEOUL, April 15 (Korea Bizwire) — BC Card Co., a credit card processing firm owned by KT Corp., plans to acquire a 34 percent stake in the internet-only K-Bank, the company said Wednesday.
The move came after KT’s plan to become the biggest shareholder of K-Bank faltered due to a legal hurdle.
BC Card said it plans to buy a 10 percent stake in K-Bank from KT for 36.3 billion won (US$29.8 million) later this week.
BC Card said it will increase its stake to 34 percent by buying new shares of K-Bank, which has raised 594.9 billion won via a rights offer.
BC Card will spend 262.5 billion won to acquire the remaining 24 percent stake in K-Bank, the company said.
At a board meeting held Tuesday, BC Card decided to sell its 1.45 million shares in Mastercard for 429.9 billion won.
K-Bank was launched in 2017 by a KT-led consortium.
Last year, a law came into force allowing information technology firms to hold as much as a 34 percent stake in an internet-only bank.
However, the law prohibits a shareholder of an Internet-only bank from raising a stake in the bank if the shareholder is punished for violating an antitrust law.
(Yonhap)
