State-run policy lender Korea Development Bank on Thursday posted a bidding notice for its brokerage and asset management units in a package deal as part of a government-led privatization scheme.

The KDB said it will divest some 43 percent in KDB Daewoo Securities Co. and a 100 percent stake in KDB Asset Management Co.

It will close the bidding on Nov. 2.

It said investors can buy a package of the two KDB affiliates.

Market watchers estimate the deals at as much as 2.3 trillion won ($1.99 billion).

KDB Daewoo Securities is the country's second-largest brokerage house whose capital base stands at 4.3 trillion won.

Local financial heavyweights, including KB Financial Group Inc. and Mirae Asset Group, have expressed their interest in acquiring the brokerage firm.

The KDB took over Daewoo Securities in 2000 after the brokerage 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, had failed due to price differences and lack of potential investors.

The incumbent Park Geun-hye administration changed the policy, to leave KDB under the government's wings and privatize KDB Daewoo Securities and Woori Bank.

Shares of KDB Daewoo Securities traded at 11,900 won as of 9:35 a.m. on the Seoul bourse, down 0.42 percent from the previous close, while the benchmark KOSPI gained 0.59 percent. (Yonhap)