KDB considering forming consortium to take over Samsung affiliate

SEOUL, Aug. 29 (Yonhap) -- State-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) is considering forming a consortium with a number of small and medium-size companies to acquire a procurement service company to be spun off from the Samsung Group, officials said Monday.
As part of its business strategy, the nation's largest conglomerate Samsung said earlier this month that it will unload its procurement service firm iMarket Korea, or IMK, which accounts for only 0.3 percent of its total business.
"KDB has proposed that it lead an consortium with small and medium-sized companies in order to take over IMK," an official of the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business said.
Working-level officials are studying the feasibility of the proposal, he said.
The proposal, if materialized, could fetch Samsung around 500 billion won (US$465.5 million), Samsung officials said.
The company, which provides procurement services for maintenance, repair and operations (MRO), was set up in 2000 as a Samsung subsidiary, and most of its revenue comes from steady orders by the group's affiliates.
Samsung's move to dispose of its MRO business comes as chaebol, South Korea's family-controlled groups, have been blamed by the government for giving procurement orders to their own affiliates, distorting fair market competition.
pbr@yna.co.kr
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