Reuters: Financial Services and Real Estate: RPT-S.Korea Hana says will pursue insurance assets

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RPT-S.Korea Hana says will pursue insurance assets Mar 28th 2012, 05:34 Wed Mar 28, 2012 1:34am EDT SEOUL, March 28 (Reuters) - South Korea's Hana Financial Group, which has just completed a $3.5 billion acquisition of Korea Exchange Bank, is interested in acquiring insurance assets and will seek to expand overseas, its executive chairman said on Wednesday. "I think insurance remains the weakest business in our portfolio, " Kim Jung-tai, newly appointed chairman of Hana, told reporters in his first news conference. "We'll look into insurance assets when right opportunity comes but we are not interested in ING, which is already drawing lots of bid interest." Insurers including MetLife and Manulife are hiring banks to advise them on a potential purchase of the Asian insurance and asset management arms of ING Groep. South Korea's KB Financial Group and Samsung Life have also said they are interested in ING's assets. Kim said Hana would also continue to eye expansion opportunities overseas as the domestic market was near saturation. Hana took control of Korea Exchange Bank, South Korea's biggest foreign exchange specialist, earlier this year following a drawn-out and contentious sale by U.S. buyout fund Lone Star . (Reporting by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)

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