Woori Financial launches $75 mn PF restructuring support fund

South Korea's Woori Financial Group has launched a 100 billion won ($74.96 million) project financing (PF) restructuring support fund.

This marks the first time the financial sector will target PF properties through auctions or public sales.

The group said on Wednesday that the Woori Financial PF Restructuring Support Fund is designed to invest in businesses aiming to acquire at-risk projects listed for auction or public sale.

This fund will provide liquidity to stable syndicated loan projects that are facing short-term cash flow challenges.

Woori Financial highlighted that this is the first time a domestic financial institution has included the acquisition of auctioned properties alongside traditional investment methods, such as bond purchases and lending.

The fund will support developers by purchasing land for auctioned properties or by offering extra capital to projects applying for a 1 trillion won syndicated loan, which is backed by both the banking and insurance sectors.

Woori Bank will contribute 90 billion won, with Woori Financial Capital adding 3 billion won, Woori Investment Securities 2 billion won, and Woori Asset Management 5 billion won.

Woori Asset Management will oversee the fund’s management.

Earlier in March, Woori Financial launched a 53.5 billion won PF Normalization Support Fund and participated in a 50 billion won PF recovery fund created by the Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO).

With the new fund, Woori Financial's total PF restructuring investments will exceed 200 billion won this year.

Write to Jae-Won Park at wonderful@hankyung.com