Chairman Kim Seung-yu visits U.S. to woo investors


Hana Financial Group is expected to launch actions to placate opponents of the group’s planned takeover of Korea Exchange Bank from Lone Star Funds.

Hana spokespeople said the move will come after the Financial Services Commission orders Lone Star, convicted of stock manipulation, to sell a large portion of stake in KEB.

The financial group will likely ask the U.S.-based buyout fund to agree on lowering KEB takeover price.

The potential move of the financial group comes amid a feasible scenario that financial regulators will eventually endorse Hana’s planned takeover of KEB despite uneasy public sentiment over Lone Star.

The coming meeting of Hana’s board members, slated for this Friday, is drawing interest as group chairman Kim Seung-yu has been visiting several U.S. cities since last weekend.

While there is speculation that the purpose Kim’s trip is to meet with Lone Star’s high-ranking figures, a Hana spokesman dismissed the possibility.

“Chairman Kim has been visiting the U.S. for his investor relations activities,” he said.

Meanwhile, he did not deny the necessity that the financial group will move to appease angry unionized workers of KEB and a group of citizens, who protest the FSC’s reported action to approve the Hana-Lone Star deal to trade KEB shares.

“It is true that the effort, including lowering the takeover price (amid currently cheaper KEB stock price compared to price agreed between Hana and Lone Star), is needed,” he said.

But he forecast that the timing to calm down critics would be after the financial regulator finally orders the U.S. fund to sell 41.02 of its 51.02 percent stake in KEB.

The financial authorities have decided to speed up the procedures to order Lone Star to sell KEB shares.

As a prior notification, the regulator on Monday instructed Lone Star to satisfy eligibility as the majority shareholder of a Korean commercial bank.

The fund may raise objections to the coming regulatory policy between Oct. 18-24.

After Oct. 24, the FSC plans to hand down the instructions to meet shareholder eligibility by holding a ― extra or ordinary ― meeting of FSC panels.

Regulatory officials said the process is merely a technical procedure as Lone Star decided not to appeal the court’s guilty verdict of rigging stocks of KEB’s credit card affiliate in 2003.

“As its fulfillment is expected to be practically impossible (from the court’s ruling), we are moving to minimize the procedure (by giving Lone Star short period),” the FSC said in a statement.

As the next step, the regulator plans to make another prior notification to Lone Star that it would order the stake sale under the assumption of the fund’s failing to satisfy the shareholder eligibility.

After the prior notice of about a week, the FSC is scheduled to finally order the stake sale through the panel discussion.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)