Woori Financial Group has officially launched the sale of its subsidiary Woori Investment & Securities along with other non-banking units, financial regulators said Friday.
Korea’s leading brokerage house will be offered in a “package” with three other nonbank subsidiaries ― Woori Aviva Life Insurance, Woori Asset Management and Woori FG Savings Bank.
Potential buyers are required to submit their preliminary bids for the batch of nonbanking units to their lead sales manager Citigroup Global Markets by Oct. 21.
Two other subsidiaries ― Woori Financial and Woori F&I ― are to be sold individually.
However, regulatory and Woori officials noted that the group’s asset management, insurance and savings bank units could also be offered separately from the brokerage house depending on how the sale process proceeds.
The nonbank units are the second batch of assets to be sold off, after the first batch made up of regional banks such as South Gyeongsang Province-based Kyongnam Bank and South Jeolla Province-based Kwangju Bank.
These regional banking subsidiaries account for almost 15 percent of the financial group’s total assets.
The Financial Services Commission has said it plans to complete the deal for the first package by May 2014, and for the second by March 2014.
It plans to launch the third sale of the group’s core Woori Bank with its credit card units in January 2014, and aims to complete the deal by October 2014.
Korea has been trying to sell Woori Financial Group to recoup capital as the government injected almost 13 trillion won into the troubled group in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis.
The FSC had attempted to privatize the group, whose largest shareholder is Korea Deposit Insurance Corp, but to no avail since 2010. KDIC falls under the management jurisdiction of the regulatory body.
KB Financial Group indicated its interest in expanding its nonbanking operations by seeking to acquire Woori’s securities unit.
By Park Hyong-ki (
hkp@heraldcorp.com)
