South Korea’s financial authorities are considering trying again to sell a controlling stake in state-owned Woori Bank next year following the latest failure to put the lender in private hands, sources said Sunday.
An auction to sell Woori Bank fell through Friday due to a lack of bidders, the government’s fourth failure to privatize South Korea’s No. 3 bank.
“There is no change in the government’s stance of privatizing Woori Bank at an early date,” said an official at the Financial Services Commission (FSC). “The government is weighing pushing for an auction next year by coming up with a new sale plan.”
Currently, the state-run Korea Deposit Insurance Corp. (KDIC) holds a stake of nearly 57 percent in Woori Bank, the flagship of Woori Finance Holdings Co.
The FSC had sought to sell a controlling 30 percent stake to a single buyer, with the remaining 27 percent to be sold to multiple investors.
The official said the Public Fund Oversight Committee plans to hold a meeting next week to review the current sale plan and assess the reason for the auction’s failure.
The South Korean government has tried to privatize Woori Bank and its affiliates since 2010 to recoup some 13 trillion won (US$11.7 billion) in bailout money invested in the aftermath of the 1997 Asian financial crisis. (Yonhap)
