SBI Holdings plans to more than double its ownership in South Korea’s Kyobo Life Insurance to over 20%, becoming the largest shareholder after the founding family chairman, Nikkei reported.
The Japanese financial services group will purchase additional shares from existing stakeholders in a deal that would bring its total investment in Kyobo to approximately ¥100 billion ($700 million). SBI first acquired a 5% stake in Kyobo for ¥18 billion in 2007 and currently holds 9.3%.
The acquisition highlights SBI’s strategy to strengthen its underperforming insurance business, which generated only ¥5.9 billion in pretax profit for the nine months through December 2024, compared to ¥99.2 billion from banking and ¥61.5 billion from securities.
Kyobo, South Korea’s third-largest life insurer with 138.7 trillion won ($98 billion) in assets, has developed significant digital capabilities, including AI-powered risk assessment systems. This dwarfs SBI Life Insurance’s assets of ¥133.8 billion ($939 million).
The two companies have been expanding collaboration since 2007, including a July agreement to develop a digital securities system.
SBI has been aggressively diversifying beyond its online trading roots, introducing zero-commission stock trading in 2023 and establishing ties with nine regional banks. The group aims to earn 20-30% of pretax profit from overseas operations in the near term.
