British bank HSBC Holdings PLC said yesterday it had canceled an agreement to purchase a controlling stake in a South Korean bank from US private equity group Lone Star Funds amid world financial turmoil.
HSBC said in a statement that it “exercised its right to terminate the acquisition agreement with immediate effect.”
The London-based bank cited “all relevant factors including current asset values in world financial markets” for the decision.
It gave Thursday as the date of the cancelation.
The bank agreed last September to purchase Korea Exchange Bank from Dallas, Texas-based Lone Star, which has faced regulatory and legal obstacles in efforts to sell its 51 percent stake in the local lender it purchased in 2003.
South Korea’s financial regulator, which was reviewing the proposed purchase by HSBC, had recently suggested it was likely to be approved. Global financial turmoil this week, however, appears to have played a major role in scuttling the deal.
“In the light of developments around the world, not least changes in asset values in world markets, we do not believe that it would be in the best interests of shareholders to continue to pursue this acquisition on the terms negotiated last year,” said Sandy Flockhart, chief executive officer of HSBC Asia and an executive director of HSBC.
HSBC had contracted to buy Lone Star’s controlling stake in Korea Exchange Bank, the country’s sixth-largest lender, for about US$6 billion.
The Financial Services Commission, the regulator, expressed disappointment.
“It is regrettable that HSBC unilaterally canceled the contract during the review process despite active efforts by the FSC,” the regulator said in a statement.
Lone Star chair John Grayken confirmed HSBC’s decision.
“We are disappointed that HSBC terminated the agreement and that the transaction will not be completed,” he said in a statement.
Lone Star has battled suspicions that it was able to purchase the bank at a bargain price after allegedly colluding with government officials to understate the bank’s financial health.
The fund has denied any wrongdoing and argued its rehabilitation of the once-financially strapped bank has been good for South Korea’s economy.
Lone Star’s efforts to sell Korea Exchange Bank have also run up against public opinion in South Korea seen as hostile to foreign buyout firms.
In June, a South Korean appeals court overturned a guilty verdict against Lone Star in a stock manipulation case, causing speculation that its fortunes were turning.
HSBC signed the deal with Lone Star after a previous effort to sell the stake to Kookmin Bank, South Korea’s largest bank, collapsed.
KEB CEO Richard Wacker lamented the cancelation in a statement, calling it “a lost opportunity for KEB and Korea.”
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