이 기사는 2020년 06월 25일 08:00 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

Attention is being paid to whether Woori Bank will participate in JC Partners’ possible acquisition of KDB Life Insurance as the state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) is in talks with the private equity firm to sell its stake in the insurer held for a long period.

JC Partners may partner with Woori Bank to buy KDB Life Insurance, sources familiar with the situation said. Woori Bank has started considering whether and how it will invest in the acquisition, according to sources.

Woori Bank’s investment in KDB Life Insurance could come in two forms. One is to join JC Partners’ project fund as a limited partner. The lender is also one of the senior tranche investors in a fund that JC Partners raised to acquire MG Non-life Insurance in 2019.

There have often been rumors about a potential future acquisition by Woori Bank – which is a key subsidiary of Woori Financial Group – when the lender invested in acquisition deals in the financial services sector. They included private equity firm Well to Sea Investment’s 2017 acquisition of Aju Capital. At that time the bank participated in the firm’s fund as an anchor investor with the right of first refusal to purchase the fund’s stake in Aju Capital.

Since then, however, Woori Bank has not included the right of first refusal when investing in private equity funds for some reason. So the bank, if it decides to make an equity investment this time, will likely JC Partners’ project fund as a senior tranche investor without the right of first refusal.

The other way is to arrange loans for JC Partners to finance the acquisition of KDB Life Insurance. This can be a safer bet for Woori Bank than an equity investment.

“JC Partners after all needs to convince Woori Bank or any other investors with its plans to increase the value of KDB Life Insurance,” an industry insider said. “It will be interesting to see whether Woori Bank will subsequently invest in KDB Life Insurance after its equity investment in MG Non-life Insurance.”

(Reporting by Hyun-woo Jin and Jang-jun Lee)