Subscribe
E-Paper
 |
| A man passes by the Kakao Bank's head office in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, in this July 2017 file photo. / Yonhap |
By Park Jae-hyuk
Kakao, the operator of the nation's most widely used messenger app KakaoTalk, will be the largest shareholder of Kakao Bank starting Friday, as the financial regulator has allowed Korea Investment Holdings (KIH) to unload its stake in the internet-only bank.
The Financial Services Commission (FSC) said Wednesday it decided to allow KIH to sell its 29 percent stake in Kakao Bank to its subsidiary, Korea Investment Value Asset Management, for 489.5 billion won ($418 million).
KIH announced the planned disposal a day earlier, premised on the FSC's approval.
"We will also sell some of our stake in Kakao Bank to Kakao and YES24 the same day, so as to exclude Kakao Bank from our list of subsidiaries," the firm said in a statement.
"According to the Financial Holding Companies Act, financial holding companies are banned from holding over a 5 percent stake in non-subsidiary companies, so we decided to sell our stake in Kakao Bank to Korea Investment Value Asset Management."
In October, KIH said it would sell its 16 percent of its stake in Kakao Bank to Kakao and 29 percent to Korea Investment Value Asset Management.
With the FSC's approval, Kakao will be able to hold a 34 percent stake in Kakao Bank, becoming the internet bank's largest shareholder.
Korea Investment Value Asset Management will become the second largest shareholder with 29 percent, and KIH will hold 5 percent minus one share.
The firm initially planned to sell the 29 percent stake to Korea Investment & Securities, its brokerage unit.
However, there was a glitch in the plan, due to a monetary penalty the brokerage firm was hit with in 2017 for its violation of the Fair Trade Act.
According to the current law, those who hold over a 10 percent stake in internet-only banks should not have any record of violating the Antitrust Act or laws related to finance in the previous five years.
KIH therefore chose Korea Investment Value Asset Management as Plan B.
Regarding the latest approval, FSC Chairman Eun Sung-soo told reporters that "It would be great if Kakao innovates and energizes the financial industry with its advantages as an ICT firm."
In July, the FSC approved Kakao's application submitted to the financial regulator April 3 to become the internet bank's largest shareholder with a 34 percent stake.
Kakao filed the application last year after lawmakers eased related internet-only bank laws prohibiting non-financial firms from owning more than a 10 percent stake in a financial firm. After the revision, non-financial entities have been able to become major shareholders in internet banks, owning stakes up to 34 percent.
Since then, Kakao has sought to increase its share in Kakao Bank, as a larger share enables the company to inject more funds into the bank and scale up its business.
