Korea Development Bank (KDB), the lender that’s pursuing a stake in Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, aims to become Asia’s third-largest bank within five years, CEO Min Euoo-sung said.
Min, whose state-owned bank will be privatized by the South Korean government by 2012, declined to comment when asked by Bloomberg News about the progress of talks with Lehman.
The US securities company slumped 13 percent in New York on Monday after analysts predicted larger writedowns and lower underwriting sales.
“Along with our privatization, we’ll actively make inroads into the overseas markets to take off as a global corporate and investment bank,” Min said in a speech to bankers at a seminar in Seoul yesterday.
“Considering the limited size and the profitability of the domestic market, KDB’s globalization is not an option, but a must,” he said.
Min, the former Seoul branch chief of Lehman, said he was hired for his ability to grow KDB globally. He faces opposition from the nation’s top regulator, which said on Monday that it would be “inappropriate” for Korea Development Bank to pursue an acquisition of Lehman.
At the end of last year, KDB had 146.9 trillion won (US$133 billion) in assets and 21.7 trillion won in shareholder equity, according to the company’s Web site. KDB’s net income last year of 2.52 trillion won, or US$2.37 billion, was just over half of Lehman’s US$4.2 billion in full-year profit.
Min said on Aug. 23, a month after being hired to prepare KDB for an initial public offering, that the global credit market turmoil provides him with a chance to expand abroad.
South Korea’s top regulator, Financial Services Commission Chairman Jun Kwang-woo, reiterated his earlier comments on Monday, cautioning KDB against taking over Lehman, which has lost 78 percent of its market value this year.
“I applaud the effort by KDB to become a global player, to branch out overseas,” Jun told reporters. “That said, I would advise careful consideration on timing, on whether the move makes sense in the long term, makes sound business sense for KDB.”
Min said he would give up all his stock options in Lehman if a transaction goes ahead.
The regulator said yesterday it would provide the government with draft privatization plans for Korea Development Bank, Industrial Bank of Korea and other state assets next month.
KDB is seeking to buy 25 percent of Lehman Brothers and wants a guarantee that would allow it to increase the stake up to 49 percent, South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper said last Wednesday, without saying where it obtained the information.
Lehman and KDB haven’t yet struck a deal because the two sides disagree on how much the US firm is worth, Min said on Tuesday last week.
Min hasn’t said how big a stake in the firm he would like to buy or how much his company would pay.
“To start with, we will enter the Asian market, including China and Southeast Asia, to position ourselves as the leading bank of Asia,” he said in his speech yesterdaty. “Then, we will expand our presence in the Americas and in Europe.”
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS