Goldman Sachs last Thursday sold slightly less than half its stake in Hana Financial Group, raising W322.5 billion $298 million. The sale, which was done as a fixed-price block trade before the opening of the Korean market, came about six months after Temasek sold its entire stake in the company and as Hana awaits approval to buy Lone Star’s majority stake in Korea Exchange Bank.
A source said Goldman’s divestment was caused by a need to take some risk off the table after holding the Hana shares since 2005 and does not mean that it is lacking confidence in the financial group, which operates the fourth-largest bank in Korea....