KB, Nonghyup bid for Woori's brokerage unit

Woori Finance Holdings Co. on Monday closed the bidding for its brokerage arm and three other units, as the government goes full steam ahead with privatizing South Korea's largest banking firm.

KB Financial Group Inc., the second-largest banking firm here, and state-run NongHyup Financial Inc. had placed their bids for Woori Investment & Securities, WooriAviva Life Insurance Co., Woori Asset Management Co. and Woori FG Savings Bank as of 5 p.m., the lenders said.

PineStreet Group Co., a local alternative investment and advisory firm, said it also handed in its bid. The three candidates have made the shortlist following the preliminary bidding in late October.

The value of the bids was not immediately available, but each firm is estimated to have offered at least 1 trillion won (US$950 million).

They were required to bid for all four affiliates since they come as a package that the government has grouped together to divest Woori Finance by the end of next year.

In late June, the Financial Services Commission unveiled the plan to sell Woori Finance, splitting its 13 units into three batches. The other two groups are Woori's two regional banks and its flagship Woori Bank, whose sales are also in progress.

But the bidders are mainly interested in buying Woori Investment & Securities, the second-biggest brokerage house in the country, deemed by market analysts to have high growth potential in investment banking.

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. and Kiwoom Securities Co., two major local players, each submitted their bids for the asset management unit only, which is estimated to be worth 70 billion won.

The four units have a combined book value of about 2.05 trillion won. Woori Investment & Securities is valued at 1.04 trillion won.

The government, seeking to recoup the public funds it injected into Woori Finance more than a decade ago, hopes to fetch at least 1.2 to 1.5 trillion won, a Woori official familiar with the matter said.

Woori Finance said it will announce the preferred bidder on Friday after evaluating the final bids at its board meeting.

This is the government's fourth attempt to sell the banking giant after failing to woo buyers since the initial privatization effort in 2010.

Woori Finance was established in 2001 with five banks that had been salvaged with 13 trillion won in taxpayers' money in the late 1990s. After selling a minor stake, the state- run Korea Deposit Insurance Corp. currently owns a 56.97 percent stake in the banking group, worth about 11 trillion won. (Yonhap News)