The chief executive of Samsung Card on Monday denied market rumors that the company is up for sale, stressing the firm’s strategic importance in Samsung Group’s business portfolio. 

“Samsung Card, with its strength in retail finance, holds an important place in the group’s financial business portfolio,” Won Gee-chan, CEO of Samsung Card, said in a special message to employees. “It is unthinkable that (Samsung Card) could be sold to another company.”

Rumors of a sale have been circulating in the market for months, after Samsung Group moved to streamline its business portfolio, selling noncore or nonprofitable units.

Samsung Card, with a customer base of nearly 10 million in this country of 50 million, logged 258 billion won ($213 million) in net profit in the first nine months of 2015. The company is yet to report its fourth-quarter earnings, but the full-year figure is widely expected to be below the previous year’s mark of 656 billion won.

The profit outlook is grim for Samsung and other local card issuers this year, with reductions in the commission rates they charge on small merchants ― pushed by the government last year ― projected to result in earnings drop of as much as 670 billion won across the sector.

By Lee Sun-young (milaya@heraldcorp.com)