Chairman Lee Soon-woo of Woori Financial Group said he would like to tell every officer and staff member working for the group’s affiliates to be proud for working for the group, not dispirited by the pending privatization of the group.
The chairman who doubles as the president of Woori Bank met and shook hands with officers and staff of Woori Bank on Dec. 22 and told them he would shoulder all the responsibility so that the group can continue to work on its strategies without consideration of the privatization plan this year.
On Jan. 2, he led a number of officers and staff members to Hong Nung, Gyeonggi Province, to pay respects to the late King Kojong of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) who founded the Daehan Chunil Bank in 1899, the predecessor of today’s Woori Bank.
The chairman said the biggest task he has this year is the privatization of the financial group, but he said he would lead the group as before until the group’s operation ceases with the privatization completed some time in the future.
He admitted there are many problems in the way of the break-up of Woori Financial Group, but they will go away because the major principles and direction will not be changed on the way to wrapping things up.
The chairman also said the package sale of the four affiliates including Woori Investment and Securities Co. and Woori Asset Management Co. had some problems with outside directors of Woori Financial Group refusing to go along with the selection of NH Financial Group as the priority bidder.
The chairman said the problems would go away when they get a price from the priority bidder in negotiations that are scheduled for some time this month that are satisfactory to the outside directors.
He said Kyongnam Bank will be sold as planned with the government ready to go to any length to sell it despite regional opposition to turning it over to private ownership.
Lee also said Woori Bank, the biggest affiliate of Woori Financial Group, will also be turned over to private ownership by selling its shares in lump sum or in part depending on what the government plans to do. He hopes that the government will come up with the right manner in disposing its stakes in the bank.
The government should take into account such factors as the bank’s position in the financial market, demand for loans, and the possibility of selling the shares of the bank in a realistic manner.
In the end, he said what would decide the manner of divesting government stakes in the bank will be up to the customers and the market.
Lee admitted that it is difficult to see the sales of the affiliates, along with their people, seeing them disappear one by one just like a family breaking up.
He said he is in the most difficult period of his 37 year career in the banking industry years and he is determined not show his sadness, but to work steadily to see that the privatization is completed so that management and the union can work things out in harmony whenever difficulties arise.
The job left for him is to boost the values of the six remaining affiliates by slimming the number of employees and carving out risky assets.
The bank has a lot of loans to such industrial sectors as shipbuilding, shipping, and construction that have gone sour and thus its non-performing asset ratio is higher than rival banks. “We have to reduce those bad loans to companies in those industrial sectors, except those already undergoing restructuring,” Lee said.
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