South Korean Banks Offer $5.3B for Stake in Lehman

Korea Development Bank—which in August backed out of negotiations to acquire struggling Lehman Brothers—is back with bid for a 25% stake in the capital-starved bank for as much as $5.3 billion, reports the AP. The state-owned lender says it will form a consortium of South Korean banks to pay for the deal, and could increase its stake later.

But the deal still could be torpedoed by Korean regulators who already have plans to split KDB into a holding company, which would be privatized, and a separate development fund, reports the Wall Street Journal. And several top Korean banks appear unwilling to work with KDB on the financing. (More Lehman Brothers stories.)