Woori faces growing pressure to buy brokerage firm
Posted : 2021-04-11 15:51
Woori Financial Group headquarters in Seoul / YonhapBy Park Jae-hyuk
Woori Financial Group is facing growing pressure to re-acquire a brokerage license to bolster its non-banking business and further boost its stock price, amid the government s accelerated attempts to completely privatize the banking group.
Last Friday, the Korea Deposit Insurance Corp. (KDIC) unloaded 2 percent of its stake in Woori for 149.3 billion won ($134 million), lowering its overall ownership in the group to 15.25 percent. This was the state deposit insurer s first divestment from Woori following a government announcement in June 2019 that it would recoup all taxpayer money injected into the group by 2022.