Kumho Asiana inks deal to sell stake in life insurer

SEOUL, Nov. 2 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's Kumho Asiana Group said Monday it signed
a formal contract with Consus Asset Management Co., a local asset manager, to
sell a 13.29 percent stake in its insurance unit.
Kumho Asiana, South Korea's seventh-largest conglomerate, didn't disclose the
value of the stake in Kumho Life Insurance Co., but market watchers estimated it
at 70 billion won (US$59 million). The sale will lower Kumho Asiana's interest in
the life insurer to 48.37 percent.
Consus Asset Management said it plans to raise its stake in Kumho Life Insurance
to about 52 percent by participating in a rights offering to be conducted around
the end of this year.
The deal comes as the group is striving to overcome a cash crunch caused by its
2006 purchase of Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co., the country's
third-largest builder.
A Kumho Asiana official said the successful sale of the stake in Kumho Life
Insurance would facilitate the group's efforts to ride out its liquidity crisis.
As part of self-help efforts, Kumho Asiana signed a deal to sell an express bus
terminal in central Seoul in early October and is seeking to sell stakes in
Daewoo Engineering & Construction, its car rental subsidiary and a
commercial-residential complex in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
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