KDB Financial Group has launched a study to export the Korea Development Bank’s growing experience as a state-run development financing bank that supported the rapid development of Korean industry to African nations, the group said recently.

The key purpose is to help with the economic development of African nations, but at the same time benefit Korean businesses’ advancement into Africa in order to familiarize those nations with Korea’s economic development record and the Korean culture, the group said.

KDB Chairman Kang Man-woo attended the annual conference of the African Development Bank held in Tanzania and proposed the establishment of a development bank in each African country modeled after the KDB, which played a great role in the development of the Korean economy in the past decades and is now running the Mongolian Development Bank on consignment. The chairman said he would like to share KDB’s experiences with African development banks. 

KDB officials said Chairman Kang feels that African countries are economically like Korea was several decades ago and they should learn Korea’s development experiences, import them, and start growing economically.

Kang experienced life in a poor country in the 1960s and he has suffered from the results of war like those in many African countries have, which is why he called for the export of the Korean development experiences to these countries in Africa, KDB officials said.

They said Tanzanian Finance Minister Mustafa Mkulo and Donald Kaberuka, the AfDB president, want to learn Korea’s economic development experiences as well as those in other African nations including Egypt and Algeria. 

The KDB officials said it would be easier for Korean firms to start operations in those African countries once they learn KDB’s know-how in helping industrial firms grow.

KDB Financial Group is looking to become Asia’s leading financial company with an initial public offering (IPO), which it plans to complete by October. 

The state-run financial holding company geared up for the privatization by appointing seven lead managers for the IPO earlier this month, which include foreign investment banks Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and UBS.

“We made the first step to become a global financial group by choosing IPO managers,” said the company in a statement. 

KDB said it aims to contribute to Korea’s economic development as it did before by finding new overseas markets. Korean financial companies, including KDB, are struggling in a saturated domestic market and have set their eyes on other countries, especially in the Southeast Asian region. 

It plans to sell at least a 10 percent stake of the company through the IPO. The government currently owns a 100 percent stake. 

KDB is a leading financial group in the country, which has Korea Development Bank and the nation’s leading brokerage Daewoo Securities under its wing. Industry watchers say KDB specializes in project financing. “KDB Financial is preparing to bid for Woori,” the source said on condition of anonymity. 

He said the government plans to ease regulations for the Woori sale, which will give KDB Financial a chance to acquire the nation’s largest financial group. 

Currently, a financial group must buy a more than 95 percent stake in another financial group for acquisition. The government plans to reduce the ratio to 50 percent to draw more candidate bids for Woori. 

Chairman Kang leads the movement. The former finance minister has insisted that KDB should take a leading role on the global stage since he took the helm of the group in March. He did not mention how to achieve the goal, but industry watchers say mergers and acquisitions are inevitable for KDB to leap forward as a global player. 

Some say that Kang will announce his plan regarding the privatization of Woori Financial soon. They say that he has already discussed the matter with senior executives of the group. 

But KDB Financial denied this. “KDB currently has no plans to bid for Woori Financial,” the group said through a press release. #