Reuters reported that eleven bidders, including a group led by Woori Finance Holdings, have expressed interest in buying up to 57% worth around USD 6 billion of South Korea's top financial services firm.

The Woori auction drew surprisingly strong interest, allaying market concern that the government may have to delay the sale of its stake again after potential bidder Hana Financial pulled out of the race and instead opted to buy a USD 4.1 billion stake in Korea Exchange Bank.

The Woori stake sale would mark the completion of South Korea's bank privatization program after it injected billions of dollars of taxpayers' money to bail out financial firms in the wake of the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s.

Korea poured KRW 12.8 trillion into Woori to recapitalize it and has recovered less than half of the money so far. Woori, hoping to stand on its own feet and avoid being merged with a rival, formed a consortium in a statement.

It had also lined up investors including steelmaker POSCO, telecommunications operator KT Corp and the National Pension Service, a source familiar with the matter said earlier, declining to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The Korea Deposit Insurance Corp, the top shareholder of Woori, declined to reveal names of individual bidders.

Media reports said private equity firm Carlyle Group has also submitted interest for the Woori stake, while Industrial and Commercial Bank of China submitted its letter of intent for a regional banking unit of Woori that is also on sale.

Carlyle officials were not available for comment and ICBC declined to comment. Local media reported that local private equity firm Vogo Fund was also interested in Woori. The fund's head declined to comment.

The auction, which requires bidders to buy at least 4% of Woori or merge with it, comes a day after smaller rival Hana agreed to snap up 51% of KEB from Lone Star in the country's biggest ever bank acquisition. The government plans to pick a preferred bidder for Woori by March and finalize the deal by June.

KDIC created Woori in April 2001 by merging banks that received public funds in the wake of the Asian financial crisis, and has sold 43% of Woori shares in a series of sales beginning in June 2002.

It is also selling two regional banking arms of Woori Kwangju Bank and Kyungnam Bank and said on Friday it has received interest from 12 bidders for the regional banks.

(Sourced from Reuters)