HSBC has no interest in Korea Exchange stake

CEO Michael Geoghegan no longer showed desire on Lone Star’s stake even as global economy rebounds.

HSBC Holdings PLC (HBC) chief executive Michael Geoghegan said Tuesday the U.K. lender is not interested in Dallas, Texas-based Lone Star Funds' controlling stake in Korea Exchange Bank. He didn't elaborate.

In September 2007, HSBC agreed to buy Lone Star's stake in KEB for around $6 billion, but the U.K. bank scrapped the deal amid the turmoil in the global financial market. The stake is currently valued at US$4.1 billion, a person familiar with the situation said earlier.

That wasn't the first time that Lone Star tried to unload its stake in KEB. Kookmin Bank, South Korea's largest bank by assets and flagship unit of KB Financial Group Inc., had agreed to buy a controlling stake in KEB from Lone Star in 2006, but the deal fell through amid a probe into the circumstances under which the bank was sold to Lone Star.

View the full article in the Wall Street Journal.