Bo-eun leads the digital content team. She has covered foreign affairs, North Korea, tech, economy and gender issues at The Korea Times. She did a short stint at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, where she obtained a new perspective on news production and life. Small sources of joy for her are lounging in the sun, having a good latte and swimming.
Hana Financial's plan to acquire insurer hits snag
Hana Financial Group's building in central Seoul / Courtesy of Hana Financial Group
By Kim Bo-eun
By Kim Bo-eun
Hana Financial Group's plan to acquire The-K Non-Life Insurance is likely to slow down due to differences over what is seen as a possible restructuring of the insurer.
The insurer's labor union held a press conference, Tuesday, claiming Hana plans to lay off hundreds of call center employees and replace them with an outsourced service. The union said a clause that states management and labor reach a consensus before related decisions are made was deleted from a proposed agreement.
“Hana Financial removed the clause from our initial proposition," said an official from The Korean Teachers' Credit Union (KTCU). The KTCU owns the insurer.
"We will have to have further discussions with Hana on the matter," he said.
The issue concerning restructuring appears to be the only issue in the process of the takeover. The two sides have agreed on the acquisition price.
Hana's board last week approved the group's acquisition of 70 percent of the non-life insurer's shares. Hana is known to have proposed to acquire the shares for about 100 billion won.
A Hana official said he could not comment on the negotiations taking place.
Hana is likely to seek to restructure the small insurer, as The-K Non-Life Insurance has continued to post a deficit for almost two years.
The insurer posted 11.1 billion won in net losses in the first three quarters of last year.
The-K Non-Life Insurance is a general insurance company focusing on auto insurance. It ranks 14th out of 17 local non-life insurers.
Hana is set on acquiring the insurer to diversity its portfolio by scaling up its non-banking units, to reduce the group's reliance on KEB Hana Bank in terms of earnings. Currently, the group does not have a non-life insurer.