[Aju News DB]
The financial arm of South Korea's Hanwha Group said Friday it was interested in acquiring a stake in Woori Bank, a state-controlled lender which has been bailed out with taxpayer's money during a financial crisis decades ago.
Hanwha Life Insurance said it was considering participating in a race to grab a stake in Woori. "Nothing has been decided yet," it said in a regulatory filing, promising to say more about its plan on September 22 before the lender starts receiving letters of intent from bidders.
Hanwha Life is South Korea's second-largest life insurer after Samsung Life Insurance Co. with its accumulated total assets estimated at about 100 trillion won (895 billion US dollars). The company is part of the first Internet-only banking consortium K Bank and provides loans based on big data.
Hanwha Life has aggressively pushed for acquisitions and mergers to increase its influence in the domestic financial market.
Woori, the country's fourth-largest lender by asset, was bailed out with an injection of 12.8 trillion won in state money during the 1998-99 Asian financial crisis that forced a sweeping consolidation of South Korean financial institutions. As a result, the government held a 51-percent stake in the bank through the state-run Korea Deposit Insurance Corp. (KDIC). So far, some 8.2 trillion won has been retrieved.
KDIC plans to sell a 30 percent stake in Woori to multiple domestic and international suitors. The stake is worth about 2.07 trillion won. An investor will be allowed to acquire 4-8 percent. The Financial Services Commission plans to receive letters of intent from bidders by around September 23 and select winners in November.
Woori's second-quarter net profit soared 35.8 percent on-year to 307 billion won as the lender improved its financial health by reducing non-performing assets. Its ratio of loan loss provisions has also increased to 140 percent at the end of June.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
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