In the days before the financial crisis, KEB was arguably Korea's most highly regarded, and international bank. It only later became the bank with the weakest capital adequacy ratios in the whole of Korea.
But now with its entry as the 51% majority owner of KEB, Lone Star has single-handledly solved the capital adequacy problem. Indeed, SP immediately upgraded KEB to BB from BB on the basis that the tier one ratio of the bank had been increased by Lone Star's capital infusion from 4.8% to above 7%.
Lone Star has invested $1.2 billion in Lone Star for a 51% stake and management control. This values the bank at...
