A South Korean high court on Tuesday cleared US private equity house Lone Star of manipulating the stock price of a former credit card unit of Korea Exchange Bank, rejecting an earlier ruling.
A lower court in February found both Lone Star and the head of Lone Starā??s South Korean operations, Paul Yoo, guilty of driving down the share price of KEBā??s former credit card unit by spreading rumours to allow the bank to buy the unit at below-market prices.
The verdict is widely expected to provide a catalyst to the stalled $6.3 billion sale of KEB by Lone Star to UK-based HSBC, although it may be difficult for the Lone Star-HSBC deal to win regulatory approval by a July 31 deadline.
