Lone Star’s KEB earnings down 63%

Lone Star Funds’ Korea Exchange Bank third-quarter profit declined to 117 billion won or $104 million from a restated 319.3 billion won a year earleir.

The 63 percent drop was revealed a week after it was told to sell its stake in the lender.

More than two-thirds of workers at KEB, which also said it won’t pay a quarterly dividend, plan to meet today to
oppose Lone Star’s proposed $4 billion sale of its stake to Hana Financial Group Inc.

The buyout fund, whose proposed sale has been delayed for a year amid legal wrangling over ownership and stock trading violations, received an advance notice last week that it will be ordered to sell the stake.

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission said on Oct. 31 that it plans to order Lone Star to sell most of its 51 percent stake in KEB as the Dallas-based firm fails to meet local requirements for holding more than 10 percent of Korean lenders after being convicted for stock-price manipulation last month. The order may be issued anytime from today, according to the advance notice provided on Oct. 31.

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