MBK consortium bids for Woori NPL unit - report

It was reported in October that 10 parties had expressed an interest in Woori F&I, including The Carlyle Group, Hahn & Co. and IMM Private Equity. According to Reuters, foreign interest in the asset cooled in the final round due to a lack of information and perceived overvaluation of its NPLs.

Woori F&I is now expected to sell for no more than KRW300 billion ($283 million). Two domestic groups - KB Financial Group and Daishin Securities - have submitted bids.

In this phase of the auction, brokerage Woori Investment & Securities - which is being sold as a package with an asset management unit, a savings bank and a joint venture life insurance business with the UK's Aviva - and leasing business Woori Financial are also on the block. Phase one involves Woori's two regional banks while the last phase is for the group's flagship asset, Woori Bank.

Woori was created by Korea Deposit Insurance Corp. (KDIC) in 2001 as part of a government-mandated consolidation of the banking sector, which was still struggling in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis. It was a temporary solution that has now been in place for more than 10 years.

KDIC once owned Woori outright but reduced its holding to 57% through an IPO and several block trades. It has made several attempts to exit its holding in full, with auctions for the entire asset failing in 2011 and 2012. A year earlier the sale was broken into several tranches but there was no credible suitor for Woori Bank.

According to auction rules, there must be at least two bidders for the sale of a government-owned stake in a financial institution to go ahead. A consortium led by MBK was thwarted in the 2011 auction because the two other bidders dropped out. In 2012, the sale failed to attract any preliminary bids.

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• Topics
• Financials
• North Asia
• Buyout
• Financial Services
• MBK Partners
• South Korea