Hana Financial Group has won a lawsuit against Lone Star, a U.S. private equity fund, for damages amounting to 1.668 trillion won (1,443 million dollars). As a result, chances are high to win the ongoing investor-state dispute (ISD) between Lone Star and the Korean government.
Hana Financial said on May 15 that the International Court of Arbitration under the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has sent the ruling to the group.
Hana Financial concluded a contract to trade 51.02 percent (329.04 million shares) of KEB held by Lone Star for 14,250 won (4.68 trillion won in total) per share in November 2010.
However, as the government approved the related acquisition one year and two months later, the final sale amount fell by 773.2 billion won in December 2012.
In response, Lone Star claimed that it suffered losses due to arbitrary and discriminatory taxation by financial authorities, a delay in the timing of the sale, and pressure to cut prices.
With Hana Financial's win in the case, Lone Star's unilateral claim that Hana Financial, once a buyout party, was under the guise of financial authorities to cut prices at the time has lost its persuasion.
The ICC arbitration outcome is likely to be a prelude to predicting the outcome of the 5.3 trillion won worth of the ISD that Lone Star filed against the South Korean government in 2012.
Analysts say that as Hana Financial Group wins all of the lawsuits filed by Lone Star, the possibility of winning the ISD between Lone Star and the Korean government is also high.