Lehman in talks with KDB to raise $6 billion: report
Lehman Brothers Holdings has intensified talks with Korea Development Bank (KDB) to raise as much as $6 billion in a share sale that could be concluded this week, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
South Korea’s KDB could buy up to 25 percent of the struggling U.S. investment bank, the paper said, without specifying sources. A spokesman for state-run KDB declined to comment.
A senior source at the Financial Services Commission (FSC), told Reuters South Korean authorities would not oppose or support any deal until price details were known.
That appeared to mark a shift by the regulator, which previously said KDB should let local private banks take the lead in any international acquisitions, dashing hopes for a direct deal with Lehman.
The source said the FSC had not been officially informed of new talks between Lehman and KDB payday loans. He said, however, even if there was deal it would be unlikely to be concluded within a week.
But FSC spokesman Yoo Hoon later said the regulator remained uneasy about the state-run bank leading any deal with Lehman.
“We have expressed our concern over KDB being the major player in a deal … we haven’t changed our view,” he said.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said on Monday KDB was seeking to buy Lehman with a private financial institution and majority of funding would come from the private firm, citing a unnamed senior FSC official.
Filed under: online, technology by Pascal