South Korean fixed and mobile operator KT is planning to generate almost half of its revenues from non-telecom areas, up from a quarter at the moment, according to Reuters citing Lee Suk-chae, CEO and chairman of KT.
Lee reportedly said during a news…
South Korean fixed and mobile operator KT is planning to generate almost half of its revenues from non-telecom areas, up from a quarter at the moment, according to Reuters citing Lee Suk-chae, CEO and chairman of KT.
Lee reportedly said during a news conference that those non-telecom areas include financial convergence and cloud computing. Reuters explains that this strategy has become necessary as companies struggle to generate new sources of revenues in South Korea’s saturated telecom market.
This announcement comes about two months after KT Capital, a unit of KT Corp., was confirmed to be eyeing PE firm Vogo Fund’s 30.68% stake in leading credit card company BC Card.
Before that, KT acquired a 20% stake in BC Card from Woori Bank and a 13.85% stake held by Shinhan Card, another credit card company, becoming the largest shareholder with a 35.83% stake. KT already had a 1.98% interest in BC Card, bought from Citibank.
If the deal with Vogo is successful, KT will own approximately 70% of the credit card company. Back in February, the telco added that it was negotiating with Busan Bank, which owns 4.03% of BC Card, to acquire part of its shares in the company.
KT has been trying since October to increase its exposure to convergence between the telecoms and banking sectors, but valuation issues reportedly delayed deals.
