Deutsche Bank to buy SeoulBank

Deutsche Bank to buy SeoulBank

SEOUL (AFP): Deutsche Bank is in talks to buy a stake in SeoulBank, the South Korean lender rescued from bankruptcy by the government, a senior official said.

The German bank is acting through one of its investment funds.

"It is still too early to tell you, but I understand that an investment firm of Deutsche Bank has expressed an interest in buying part of Seoulbank," Lee Keun-Young, head of the Financial Supervisory Commission, told journalists Monday.

Minister of Finance and Economy Jin Nyum said on Monday due diligence was underway by an unidentified foreign investment firm, apparently referring to the Deutsche Bank's investment fund.

Jin said the government would push ahead with privatization of state-controlled banks by mid-2002, a deadline agreed with the International Monetary Fund for the sale of state-funded banks.

Seoulbank was nationalized in 1998 when on the brink of bankruptcy after being badly hit by the Asian financial crisis.