Goldman Sachs has been asked by the South Korean government to check if Hana Bank has the financial capacity to fund a 1.1 trillion won ($916.2 million) merger with SeoulBank, according to the Maeil Business Newspaper.Ahead of official negotiations for a final contract, the government had asked Goldman to evaluate Hana’s financial status, the report quoted an unnamed industry source as saying.
Hana Bank has been picked as the preferred candidate to buy nationalised lender SeoulBank over US fund Lone Star and it has said it would pay for the deal in shares.