이 기사는 2021년 09월 28일 08시01분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

South Korea’s KB Kookmin Bank has secured U.K.’s Lloyds Banking Group as its investment banking (IB) business partner, which is expected to enable the Korean lender to gain a foothold in the European IB market.

KB Kookmin Bank recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Lloyds Banking Group, paving the way to quickly participate in syndicated loans in the real estate sector arranged by Lloyds Banking Group. Studio apartments, hotels, and several commercial facilities throughout Europe are expected to be investment targets.

KB Kookmin Bank is specializing in syndicated loans in Korea, ranking first in Bloomberg Global syndicated loan arrangers league table for 2020 for the fourth consecutive year.

The latest agreement is expected to help KB Kookmin Bank expand its IB business in the overseas markets by securing a foreign institutional institution which will make the lender get involved in foreign big deals.

Lloyds Banking Group also has secured global networks to sell down its large-sized deals through the latest agreement.

The size of syndicated loans conducted by Lloyds Banking Group is so large that it needs as many institutions as possible to stably arrange them. There are not many Asian banks in the U.K., as many financial institutions left the country after the Brexit, which means the latest MOU will be a win-win situation for both KB Kookmin Bank and Lloyds Banking Group.

“Lloyds Banking Group always has plenty of deals in the pipeline and there are several Lloyds Banking Group deals that KB Kookmin Bank is currently reviewing,” said an official at KB Kookmin Bank. “We plan to build a more balanced global asset portfolio thanks to the latest agreement.”

The latest MOU is meaningful in that it will serve as a foothold for KB Kookmin Bank's European IB unit to increase its assets. While the bank focuses on the banking business in emerging markets such as Vietnam and Indonesia, it has developed markets like London, Hong Kong, and New York as its global IB hubs.

Among KB Kookmin Bank’s three IB units in Hong Kong, London, and New York, the London unit is growing at a slowest pace.

KB Kookmin Bank’s Hong Kong IB unit, which was established in 2017, has already settled down as the overseas base covering the entire Asia-Pacific region, including Australia and the Middle East. Its New York IB unit focuses on high-quality real assets such as natural gas pipelines in Canada and collateralized loans for Google's office in Silicon Valley in the U.S.

“We have established solid overseas networks in the U.S. among our own IB units,” said the official. “We have focused on revitalizing business networks as the London IB unit has been growing at a relatively slow pace, and the latest MOU has given us an opportunity to participate in the Lloyds Banking Group’s deals first.” (Reporting by Hyun-jung Kim)