KDB Financial Group Inc. is seeking to buy a local bank as part of efforts to privatize the group and beef up its competitiveness, its head said Sunday.
"KDB Financial is ready to seek mergers and acquisitions at any time if there is a suitable target," Kang Man-soo, chairman of KDB Financial Group, said in an interview.
Kang said that as there is a counterparty in any takeover deal, it would be difficult for him to specify the name of a target bank, hinting that the group may be looking to buy a lender in Korea.
KDB Financial Group has expressed its willingness to seek a bank takeover as the group needs to expand its deposit base before privatization. An attempt to buy Woori Finance Holdings Co. was thwarted in mid-june when the Financial Services Commission, the nation's financial regulator, scrapped a plan to sell the state-run banking group to KDB Financial, due to public criticism.
"We are looking into a foreign bank as well. (As the global economic outlook is not good), I think that many financial firms in the U.S. and Europe may be up for sale," Kang said.
Kang, a former finance minister, has been strongly supportive of creating a gigantic financial firm or so-called mega financial institution through takeovers in a bid to secure the group's competitiveness in the global market.
Kang stressed the need to set up such a mega financial firm at a recent parliamentary audit session, saying that local financial firms lag behind in terms of size and competitiveness, making it difficult to make forays into global markets.
The government, which owns 100 percent of the group, should start to reduce its stake no later than May 2014 under the current blueprint for KDB's privatization.
Under the privatization plan, KDB Financial will seek to list its shares on the Korean stock market this year and on foreign stock markets in 2012.
Kang said Goldman Sachs expressed its willingness to join a potential initial public offering by KDB Financial Group as an investment in the group is seen as attractive.
In an effort to strengthen its deposit bases, Korea Development Bank, a bank unit of KDB Financial Group, will seek to increase the number of its branches to around 70 this year, up from the 50 currently in operation. Next year, the bank plans to open another 30 branches. (Yonhap)