Hana Financial to Raise 1.05 Billion to Fund KEB Buy

South Korea’s Hana Financial Group will raise around 1.2 trillion won ($1.05 billion) in a rights issue designed to fund its $4.1 billion acquisition of Korea Exchange Bank, Reuters reported, citing a story in the Korea Economic Daily. Hana agreed in November to buy a 51% stake in Korea Exchange Bank from U.S. private equity fund Lone Star.

(Reuters) – Hana Financial Group plans to raise around 1.2 trillion won ($1.05 billion) in a rights issue to fund its $4.1 billion acquisition of Korea Exchange Bank , the Korea Economic Daily reported.

Hana, South Korea’s fourth-largest financial services firm by assets, is searching for ways to finance the country’s biggest ever banking acquisition, including a rights offering, with a view to concluding the deal in the first quarter of 2011.

The paper, citing an unnamed high-ranking official at Hana, said it planned to offer around 15 percent of all issued shares in next February.

Hana had no immediate comment.

Hana chairman Kim Seung-yu said earlier that the company was seeking multiple foreign investors each willing to buy up to 9 percent of its shares.

Hana had agreed last month to buy 51 percent of KEB from U.S. private equity fund Lone Star .

(Reporting by Ju-min Park; Editing by Alex Richardson) ($1=1143.0 Won)