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Woori Bank to open two new branches in India in H1 2024
Woori Bank headquarters in Seoul. Courtesy of Woori Bank
By Lee Kyung-min
Woori Bank will open two new branches in India, the world’s leading emerging market, the local lender said Tuesday.
Woori said it recently obtained preliminary approval from India's central bank to open branches in Pune and Ahmedabad in the first half of next year.
The two new branches raise the number of Woori’s branches in India to five, adding to the Chennai branch, set up in 2012, and branches in Gurugram and Mumbai, both established in 2017.
The local lender said that Pune is a key hub for India's western automobile industry belt, housing automobile production plants of local and foreign automakers. Among the manufacturers seeking Woori’s financing programs will be POSCO, Korea’s steel titan and LG Electronics, the bank said.
The city of Ahmedabad has the world’s largest petrochemical complex and the largest port in India. It has 224 large industrial complexes and 26 free economic zones. Woori plans to identify and provide financing opportunities for promising local companies in India.
“India is the largest beneficiary of the global supply chain reorientation and a robust emerging market where large global and local companies make hefty investments,” a Woori Bank official said.
“The preliminary approval will enable us to grow together with the Indian economy and make a big leap forward as Asia’s top global financial company.”
According to Woori Financial Group, the bank’s holding firm, its net income in the first nine months came to 2.43 trillion won ($1.79 billion), down 8.4 percent from a year earlier.
Woori Bank in the same period logged a net profit of 2.28 trillion won, down 3.5 percent from the year before.
The comparable figure for Woori Card, the holding firm’s credit card subsidiary, was 118 billion won, down 34.1 percent from a year earlier.