South Korean KB Financial was mentioned as a merger candidate for the privatisation of peer Woori Finance, reported the Korea Economic Daily here (Korean).

The report, which cited industry sources, claimed the possibility and said that the to-be merged entity would be 50th large bank in terms of its asset. See ‘Korean Gov. committed to financial deregulation‘ for more information on Korea’s financial industry.

Meanwhile, Shinhan, another South Korean financial holding company, would unlikely be merged with Woori. The report, which did not cite any source for this piece of information, claimed Shinhan had expressed several times that it has no intention to merge with local companies.

Woori, in which the South Korean government has a 65.97% stake through Korea Deposit Insurance Company, was earlier reported likely to merge with another financial company before the government divests its stake (Update: Woori Finance’s Privatization).

Hana Financial was also mentioned as a potential merger candidate, according to an earlier report, see ‘Update: Possible Hana-Woori merger‘.

(Source: Korea Economic Daily)