Samsung Life to buy Samsung Electronics stake in Samsung Card for $1.3 billion

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Samsung Life, an insurance arm of Samsung Group, the country's biggest conglomerate, already owns 34.4 percent of the credit card business.

Analysts and investors had long speculated that Samsung Group would eventually consolidate control of its financial arms under the life insurer. The move is seen as part of an ongoing streamlining of the smartphones-to-construction business empire's ownership structure, cementing the founding family's control.

(Reporting by Se Young Lee and Joyce Lee; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)