Chairman Lim Jong-ryong of NH Financial Group.

With the takeover of Woori Investment and Securities Co., NH Financial Group will rank fourth in terms of assets among financial groups in Korea. The financial group was named the priority bidder in an open bidding for the securities firm last December, and a final contract is being negotiated with NH Financial’s 1.5 trillion won bid. Government officials said they see no problems for NH Financial signing an official agreement soon, as the bid is usually reduced in the final negotiations.

The takeover would boost its assets to 290 trillion won. Meanwhile, its securities affiliate, NH Securities, accounted for only 1.3 percent of the securities transactions in Korea, while Woori Investment and Securities handled 8.5 percent of all securities transactions in Korea, bringing their total share of the market to around 10 percent. This is large enough to knock KDB Securities out of the top spot in terms of market share, a fact that brings immense pride to the financial group and to its chairman Lim Jong-ryong in particular.

As soon as Chairman Lim arrived at NH Financial, he formed a task force to take charge of the takeover of the securities firm and called for a meeting of the group’s affiliate CEOs. At the meeting, the chairman told them the group should expand and diversify its non-banking operations, as the earnings from NH Bank accounted for around 80 percent of the group’s total profit. He drove hard to achieve the target to change the image of the financial group as that of one facing all challenges head on during the first six months of his arrival.

Lim considered experiences at jobsites and professionalism as most important when choosing the CEO for NH Bank. He said what they need is someone with the power to make tough decisions and daring enough to implement the decisions made at the financial group that was faced with crises,.

Lim quoted a Chinese proverb that says, “Once you begin the work, you should surprise the world by achieving more than planned.”

NH Financial is faced with lots of problems like any one of its rivals, such as the economic slowdown, low interest rates, and the ceiling on interest rates that can be charged, among others, and the group had more than its share of its own problems such as the malfunctioning of its electronic operation system and conflicts over its management with the NACF. The takeover of Woori Investment and Securities has had some detractors, too, although many outside critics believe it was a good move.

The financial group will be able to provide diverse financial services now that it has taken over the investment and securities firm, thus strengthening its economics-related arm of operation, namely the retail operation. The investment and securities firm has abundant knowledge of investment banking and wealth management, which can be transferred to the financial affiliates of the group, which itself will be a great asset for the group so that they may boost their productivity, a synergistic effect that the group has been looking for in the takeover, officials of the group said. 

NH Financial will ask the Financial Services Commission for approval to include the takeover of Woori Life Insurance and Savings company in a package deal involving the securities firm.

NH Financial will announce its plan for the operation of the newly acquired financial firms from Woori Financial Group next month including the schedule of the merger of Woori Investment and Securities and Woori Life Insurance Co.