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SEOUL: South Korea’s financial watchdog said Friday it will resume
a regulatory review of the proposed six billion-dollar sale of Korea
Exchange Bank to global giant HSBC Holdings in the coming week.
The announcement raises hopes that the
government will allow HSBC to buy a 51-percent stake in KEB from
Lone Star when legal disputes are resolved over the US buyout
fund’s 2003 purchase of the Korean bank.
“The government has decided to resume a review
concerning the approval for HSBC to acquire KEB stocks,” Kim Gwang
Soo, director general of the Financial Service Bureau at the
Financial Services Commission (FSC), told journalists.
In April, HSBC and US buyout fund Lone Star said
they were delaying the deadline for the deal until July 31.
A lower court verdict is expected as early as
September as to whether local officials were lobbied to exaggerate
the financial woes of KEB so Lone Star could buy the country’s
fifth-largest lender at a fire-sale price.
-- AFP
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