Shinhan Financial Group has reportedly signed an agreement to acquire BNP Paribas Cardif General Insurance in South Korea.

As per the share purchase agreement, the banking group will own a 94.54% stake in BNP Paribas Cardif General Insurance, the Korea Herald has reported.

Through the acquisition of the general insurer, Shinhan seeks to diversify its business offerings.

According to the report, Shinhan will pay approximately $34m for the insurer.

“With this acquisition of a non-life-insurance company, we plan to complete our business portfolio as a comprehensive financial group and provide new customer services through synergy between group subsidies based on abundant customer data collected from online and offline channels,” Shinhan was quoted by the publication as saying.

BNP Paribas Cardif had established the non-life insurer in 2014 in partnership with Shinhan Life and AXA.

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The general insurer has assets of $15.64m (KRW18.4bn) and liabilities of $40.8m (KRW48bn). It had recorded a net loss of $4.5m (KRW5.4bn) in the first half of this year.

Shinhan Financial Group already has operations in the banking, credit card, brokerage and investment management sectors.

The acquisition marks its entry into to general insurance market at a time when the financial authorities are no longer issuing licenses for general insurance due to the competition.

“We will introduce an unprecedented digital non-life-insurance company via various forms of collaboration with digital startups and others in addition to further solidifying the current business area,” Shinhan added.