Deals
Standard Chartered, Lone Star Show Pitfalls of Banking in Korea
This article is for subscribers only.
Hong Sung Sook, a 67-year-old Seoul housewife, says she’s getting ready to pull $100,000 of savings out of Standard Chartered Plc’s South Korean unit and put it in a local bank. Paul Yoo, 60, the former country head of Lone Star Funds, is locked up in jail and refuses to talk to the press.
Their stories help explain why six years have passed since any overseas investor has taken over a Korean financial company valued at more than $500 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. South Korean President Lee Myung Bak’s latest effort to sell Woori Finance Holdings Co. collapsed this month after the taxpayer-rescued firm failed to attract any bids from abroad.