Former Chairman Kim Seung-yu of Hana Financial Group has been named as an advisor to Korea Financial Investment Co., financial industry sources said June 30.
Kim will assume the new job as soon as he returns from a trip overseas. The financial holding company decided to bring Kim aboard because its operation has been expanding since the establishment of Kakao Bank, an internet bank primarily set up to take care of investment banking, and its general corporate growth.
Kim was said to have been given the job due to his connection with chairman Kim Jae-chul of Dongwon Group, the father of Vice Chairman Kim Nam-koo of the financial investment holding co. He was also an outside director of Hana Financial Holding Co. from 2006 to 2010.
The financial holding co. said they decided to name Kim as an advisor in recognition of his profound experience and expertise in various financial areas. Kim entered Hanil Bank as a clerk in 1965 and moved to Korea Investment Finance Co. in 1971. He rose to vice president of the company and president of Hana Bank. He led Hana Financial Group as chairman from 2005 to 2012.
He now is chairman of the Hana Academy. Hana Financial Group chairman Kim Seung-yu finished his 15-year career as chief of the financial company in 2012.
Kim worked as chief executive of Hana Bank between 1997 and 2005 and as the first chairman of Hana Financial Group between 2005 and 2012.
The 68-year-old banker has been highly evaluated as one of the few figures to foster their organizations via mergers and acquisitions in the nation’s financial industry.
Hana, which took over Seoul Bank in 2002, Boram Bank in 1999 and Chungcheong Bank in 1998, acquired Korea Exchange Bank last month.
Under Kim’s initiative, Hana Bank established its parent Hana Financial Group as it tapped the brokerage business by acquiring Daehan Investment & Securities Co.
During the Roh Moo-hyun administration, Kim encountered a critical situation as he and Hana Bank were warned by the Financial Supervisory Service for issuing fabricated loan documents to SK Networks (formerly SK Global) and SK Shipping.
But during the Lee Myung-bak administration starting in 2008, Hana Financial saw its assets rank climb to No. 2 in the local financial market, up from No. 4.
Earlier this week, Kim participated in a two-day business tour across the country, dubbed the “financing to the underprivileged,” with FSC chairman Kim Seok-dong.
The FSC chief, who played a key role as then-director general in approving Lone Star’s acquisition of KEB.
Hana’s acquisition of Korea Exchange Bank from Lone Star Funds had sparked wide interest among market participants at home and abroad in both economic and political terms.
Though he signed a contract with Lone Star’s senior executives to trade KEB shares, his former remarks in regards to the bank remain a bit of a paradox, according to market observers.
When Hana Bank was contending with Lone Star to take over Seoul Bank in 2002, Kim argued that the U.S.-based bidder should not be allowed to own a Korean bank, stressing that it is a “private equity fund.” But he ultimately acknowledged the status of Lone Star as the majority shareholder of KEB. The fund controlled the Korean bank between 2003 and 2012.
It was the Financial Services Commission that officially acknowledged the shareholder eligibility of Lone Star, despite arguments among a group of professors and lawmakers that it is a non-financial investor, and thus is banned from owning a local bank.
Though the U.S. investor was also convicted of stock manipulation, it could enjoy huge management premiums paid by Hana Financial. The FSC did not accept calls from protestors to dispose of its KEB shares to anonymous investors in the stock market, instead of a particular one like Hana.
in 2003, took the initiative in endorsing the Hana-Lone Star deal last January.
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