Kyongnam Bank and Kwangju Bank, the unlisted subsidiaries of Woori Financial, may be put up for sale during the privatization process, reported the Korea Economic Daily.
The unsourced report claimed that it is expected that the government may sell the two South Korean lenders before it initiates the plan to merge Woori Finance with any financial firm.
The report explained that such a sale plan could emerge in order for Woori to reduce its assets before its potential merger.
Woori has estimated the value of Kyongnam Bank and Kwangju Bank at KRW 2tn (USD 1.71bn) and KRW 1.5tn (USD 1.28bn) respectively.
The listed South Korean peers of these firms, such as Daegu Bank and Pusan Bank, and an unlisted brokerage, Korea Investment Securities, have been mentioned as potential bidders for the banks, the report added.
Woori, in which the South Korean government has a 65.97% stake through the Korea Deposit Insurance Company, was earlier reported to be likely to merge with another financial company before the government divests its stake in it.
For more information and links to previous stories see ’Woori Privatization Update: KB Financial possible merger candidate‘.
The Korea Economic Daily article can be viewed here (Korean).
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