May 25, 1999
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| May 25, 1999 | atimes.com | |
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| The Koreas Seoul to seek other bank-buyers while negotiating with Newbridge SEOUL - South Korea will continue talks regarding Newbridge Capital's bid to take over Korea First Bank while looking for other foreign buyers, an informed high-level government official said Friday. The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said the new offer by the U.S. equity firm is improved and a negotiable one and has decided to resume negotiations. Newbridge Capital is no longer a prominent candidate to take over Korea First since the deadline agreed upon with the Korean government in December to reach a settlement has passed. Newbridge presented a new offer instead of meeting an extended deadline last week. The official said the gap between the two parties over the value of Korea First's loan assets had narrowed to around 1 trillion won ($835 million) in the new offer. Seoul will not solely depend on Newbridge and will negotiate with other investors at the same time, he said. According to sources familiar with the situation, Regent Pacific Group of Britain and Citibank Corp. of the United States have shown interest in Korea First. Regardless of the efforts to sell it, the government will inject fresh public funds of around 3 trillion won into Korea First, whose capital has already been eroded.The government has not yet decided on the exact date and the size of capital decrease. Meanwhile, the government is reportedly having difficulty in negotiations with HongKong and Shanghai Banking Corp. (HSBC) over the sale of Seoul Bank and may go beyond the May 31 deadline for an agreement. (Asia Pulse/Yonhap) | |||||||||
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