U.S. Asset Manager Capital Group Takes 5% Stake in Shinhan Financial Group

[Financial News] U.S. asset manager Capital Group has acquired more than a 5% stake in Shinhan Financial Group, becoming its third-largest major institutional shareholder after the National Pension Service (NPS) and BlackRock.
According to an electronic disclosure filed with the Financial Supervisory Service on the 2nd, Capital Group reported that it held 23,568,346 shares of Shinhan Financial Group as of last month.
Capital Group’s stake stood at 5.02%, based on Shinhan Financial Group’s total of 469,452,390 outstanding voting shares. Its ownership had remained below 5% as recently as the 25th of last month, but it surpassed that threshold after purchasing an additional 115,260 shares.
Capital Group said, "We increased our stake through on-market stock purchases and over-the-counter purchases of depositary receipts," adding that the investment was for "investment purposes only."
As of the end of June this year, Capital Group was one of the world’s largest asset managers, overseeing more than $3.6 trillion in assets. It is regarded as a long-term active investor that prioritizes a company’s long-term growth, profitability, cash-generation capacity and capital-allocation ability over short-term share-price movements.
Shinhan Financial Group’s targets of achieving a return on equity (ROE) of at least 10%, a total shareholder return ratio of at least 50% and a common equity tier 1 (CET1) ratio of at least 13% may have been factors in the investment decision. The group has linked growth, profitability and shareholder returns.
A Shinhan Financial Group official said, "We believe Capital Group viewed positively our efforts to sustainably enhance shareholder value through Value-up 2.0, as well as the improvement in the group’s ROE resulting from better performance across group companies, particularly nonbank affiliates."

[email protected] Seo Ji-yoon Reporter