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The corporate logo of Kakao Bank (Yonhap) |
Kakao Bank, South Korea's top internet-only lender, said Wednesday it has recently completed a capital increase of 1 trillion won ($920 million) to improve its loss-absorbing ability and provide more loans for low- and mid-credit borrowers.
TPG Capital of the United States and Anchor Equity Partners of Hong Kong have newly bought shares worth 250 billion won, or a 2.61 percent stake, respectively, the lender said.
An additional 500 billion won worth of shares have been sold to existing shareholders, including Kakao Corp., the operator of South Korea's dominant messaging app KakaoTalk.
After the rights offering, Kakao is the leading shareholder of Kakao Bank with a stake of 31.78 percent, followed by Korea Investment Value Asset Management Co. with 27.1 percent and KB Kookmin Bank with 9.35 percent. Chinese IT giant Tencent also holds a 3.74 percent interest.
Kakao Bank said its capital adequacy ratio, a key barometer of financial soundness measuring the proportion of a bank's capital to its risk-weighted assets, will rise to around 20 percent.
With the rights issue completed, Kakao Bank's outstanding shares total 407.65 million with paid-in capital reaching some 2.8 trillion won.
In 2017, South Korea permitted two internet-only banks -- Kakao Bank and K-Bank -- to offer services around the clock in a bid to inject more competition into the banking sector. (Yonhap)
