Tuesday, April 15th, 2014
SEOUL, KOREA - Nonghyup Financial Group has finalized a deal to take over the three units of Woori Financial Group, including Woori Investment & Securities, Woori Aviva Life, and Woori Financial Savings Bank after a lengthy period of negotiation. Both financial groups held board of directors meetings on the same April 11 and approved the package transaction.
As for the selling price for which both sides have had difficulties reaching agreement, Woori Financial agreed to settle at 1,070.8 billion won, 2 percent lower than the 1.1-trillion-won bid price suggested by Nonghyup Financial at the time it was selected as a preferred bidder. The prices for each unit are 946.7 billion won for Woori Investment & Securities, 67.6 billion won for Woori Aviva Life, and 56.5 billion won for Woori Financial Savings Bank.
As for the pending litigation over Woori Investment's project financing deal in France that became a sticking point just before the deal's signing, the two sides agreed that Woori Investment would pay the compensation money if it is in excess of 1 percent of the selling price in case it loses the legal battle. The name Woori Investment & Securities will be permitted to be used for one year without additional fees.
With the combination of Woori Investment and Nonghyup Securities, a behemoth financial services firm will be born. The newly merged firm's assets will be 36 trillion won, about 10 trillion won more than No. 2 firm Daewoo Securities.
