Nara Bancorp chief resigns after failed bid to shake up senior staff.The president and chief executive of Nara Bancorp Inc. resigned last week after just three months on the job when his attempt to shake up the company's senior managers apparently was met with revolt. Seong-Hoon Hong had been recruited to Nara by its prior president and chief executive, Benjamin Hong, who said he purchased the bank Seong-Hoon ran, Asiana Bank of Sunnyvale, just to get his hands on the executive. But Seong-Hoon Hong was hindered by his experience at Asiana, a much smaller bank with just $36.5 million in assets versus Nara's $1.1 billion, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. people familiar with the situation. He resigned after an ill-fated reshuffling of the bank's senior managers, some of whom had more experience than Hong and had been passed up for the job he had just gotten, these sources said. Hong also made an attempt to centralize control over the bank's regional office in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , reducing the power of the regional manager, according to the sources. He also tried to separate the operations of the bank into two distinct units, one in Northern California Northern California, sometimes referred to as NorCal, is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The region contains the San Francisco Bay Area, the state capital, Sacramento; as well as the substantial natural beauty of the redwood forests, the northern and the other in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, . "He thought he would come in and make changes right away to show that he was doing something," said one insider. "It only served to send a clear message that he wasn't the right man for the job." Attempts to reach Hong were unsuccessful. The reins of the bank have been temporarily returned to Benjamin Hong, 71, who remains chairman of Nara and owns shares in the company valued at $9.1 million. He agreed to cut short his retirement and return as interim president and chief executive, for a salary of $1. The search for a successor is expected to take six months. Hong acknowledged that his predecessor's relationship with the staff "wasn't working." "The board wanted to compensate me and I said no, that would make my coming back tainted," he said. "I have no personal gain or agenda in coming back." Acquisition attempt The management changes come at a propitious pro·pi·tious adj. 1. Presenting favorable circumstances; auspicious. See Synonyms at favorable. 2. Kindly; gracious. [Middle English propicius, from Old French time for the No. 2 Korean-American bank in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. . Nara currently is locked in a bidding war with Hanmi Financial Inc., the largest bank in Koreatown with $1.7 billion in assets. Both are vying to purchase the No. 3 Korean-American Bank, Pacific Union Bank, whose Korean-based parent has put the publicly held U.S. unit up for sale. "This will be the first step of any meaningful consolidation in the Koreatown market," said Dan Boyle Dan Boyle may refer to:
Other bidders for the $1 billion-in-assets Pacific Union include Seoul-based banks with deep pockets. One bidder, the $54 billion-in-assets Hana Bank, sees an opportunity to gain a toehold in the U.S. market. Pacific Union's shares closed at $24.41 each on Dec. 4, giving it a market value of $230 million, or close to 2.5 times its book value. A sale to Nara or Hanmi would likely produce some cost savings. Nara, which is located across the street from Pacific Union on Wilshire Boulevard Wilshire Boulevard is one of the principal east-west arterial roads in Los Angeles, California, United States. It was named for H. Gaylord Wilshire (1861-1927), an Ohio native who made and lost fortunes in real estate, farming, and gold mining. , has one or two branches with overlapping locations. Hanmi has as many as six or seven branches that overlap with Pacific Union. Pacific Union's sale was precipitated in August when a Dallas-based private equity group, Lone Star Funds Lone Star Funds is a worldwide private equity firm based in Dallas, Texas, that specializes in purchasing distressed companies and assets, often well-known consumer brands that have seen better times or gone through financial difficuties due to leveraged buy-outs. , signed a $1.2 billion deal to take majority control of Seoul-based Korea Exchange Bank Oehwan Bank or Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) (KSE: 004940) is South Korea's only exchange bank company. It is headquartered in Seoul, and was established in 1967. , which has a 62.5 percent stake in Pacific Union. Lone Star needs to sell its Pacific Union stake within the next six months to avoid being reclassified as a bank holding company, which would subject the $8.3 billion investment group to stringent bank regulations. |
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