SEOUL, South Korea—Korea Exchange Bank believes that HSBC Holdings PLC will be a good strategic shareholder if the sales deal between Lone Star Funds and the British bank ever gets closed, KEB's chief executive said Wednesday.
"We think Lone Star Funds made a good choice (and) we want this deal to get closed," Richard Wacker said at a press conference in Seoul.
For KEB to develop and grow internationally, HSBC is a better prospective buyer than either Kookmin Bank or Hana Bank, Wacker said.
HSBC and Lone Star agreed Tuesday to extend until July 31 the deadline for the completion of the sale of a majority stake in KEB.
Last year, London-based HSBC announced plans to acquire Lone Star's 51 percent controlling stake in Korea Exchange Bank pending regulatory and government approval in a case closely watched by foreign investors in South Korea. The deadline for the deal was originally set for Wednesday.
Wacker said Lone Star and HSBC seemed to have been encouraged to extend the agreement by government comments.
South Korea's Financial Services Commission Chairman Jun Kwang-woo said Tuesday that new President Lee Myung-bak's administration "is trying to take proactive steps" to resolve the stalled sale.
Pending legal cases related to Lone Star's acquisition of KEB, however, prevented a quick solution, Jun said.
Previous efforts by Dallas, Texas-based Lone Star to sell its stake in KEB have been stymied by various legal disputes, compounded by negative sentiment in South Korea toward foreign investors seen as profiting by taking stakes in distressed South Korean companies.
Lone Star has long battled suspicions that it was able to purchase KEB in 2003 at a bargain price after colluding with government officials to understate the bank's financial health.
Lone Star denies any wrongdoing and has countered that its rehabilitation of the once financially strapped KEB has been good for South Korea's economy.
KEB is South Korea's sixth-largest lender. HSBC said Tuesday the purchase price of the majority stake stood at approximately US$6 billion based the U.S. dollar-South Korean won exchange rate at the end of last week.
