Four financial entities offered preliminary bids Monday to buy Daewoo Securities Co., in a deal that could come as a game changer for the local brokerage industry, the state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) said.
  
The prospective buyers are KB Financial Group Inc., the largest banking giant by assets; the country's leading asset management expertise firm of Mirae Asset Group; Korea Investment Holdings Co.; and the employee stock ownership association led by Daewoo's labor union.
  
The bidding came after KDB announced its plan last month to put the brokerage firm on sale as part of a government-led privatization plan.
  
The policy lender holds a 43 percent stake in Daewoo Securities, the country's second-largest brokerage house whose total assets stood at 4.3 trillion won (US$ 3.76 billion) at the end of June. The price tag is estimated to hover over 2 trillion won, according to industry sources.
  
The main bidding is scheduled to take place around early next month, KDB said.

With KB, Mirae Asset and Korea Investment Holdings being seen as prominent candidates, the acquisition of Daewoo Securities by
any of the three firms will make the winner an industry leader.  
  
In case KB Financial acquires Daewoo Securities, the merged firm will be able to beat the current No. 1 NH Investment with over
4.8 trillion won in capital.
  
The combined capital of Mirae Asset and Daewoo Securities would reach nearly 7.9 trillion won, the biggest-ever brokerage house in South Korea. 
  
The marriage with Daewoo Securities is also expected to make Korea Investment Holdings the industry top with a combined capital of 7.5 trillion won, according to the sources.
  
Daewoo Securities has 103 branches across the country and 10 overseas ones in eight countries, including China, Indonesia and Vietnam.
  
KDB acquired Daewoo Securities in 2000 after the brokerage firm went bankrupt in the midst of the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s.
  
Previous efforts by the government to privatize KDB and the securities firm, along with state-run Woori Bank, in 2008 fell through. (Yonhap)