(LEAD) Kookmin Bank inks share swap deal with POSCO, Hyundai Merchant

SEOUL, Dec. 19 (Yonhap) -- Kookmin Bank Co., South Korea's top lender, said Friday that it has sealed a 450 billion won (US$349 million) share swap deal with local firms POSCO Co. and Hyundai Merchant Marine Co.

Under the deal, top steelmaker POSCO will get a 2.35 percent stake in KB
Financial Group Inc., the holding company of Kookmin Bank, for 300 billion won,
while Hyundai Merchant Marine Co., the nation's No.2 shipper, will get a 1.18
percent stake in the holding company for 150 billion won.
Kookmin Bank will take a 0.9 percent stake in the steelmaker and a 3.3 percent
stake in the shipper for 450 billion won.
The share swap deal, which the three companies announced later in the day in a
regulatory filing, came as part of Kookmin Bank's efforts to unload its 5.19
percent stake in KB Financial to meet domestic banking regulations.
In late September, Kookmin Bank had a 20.66 percent stake in KB Financial after
it turned itself into a holding company.
Last week, the lender sold its 3.3 percent interest in KB Financial to foreign
and domestic institutional investors, following its Oct. 29 decision to sell as
much as a 2 percent stake in its holding company to the banking unit of Japan's
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. by June 2009.
In addition, Kookmin Bank has decided to sell its entire stake of 14.9 percent in
ING Life Insurance Co. to the insurer's parent, the Dutch financial giant ING
Group, for 339 billion won.
The lender predicts that its capital adequacy ratio, a key barometer of financial
soundness, will be raised to the 12-percent range from where it currently hovers
at about 9 percent via its recent moves, including the share swap deal.
ksnam@yna.co.kr
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