The Korea Exchange confirmed a restructuring plan to adopt a holding company system and go public, hoping to boost market competitiveness and expand overseas.

Though the stock operator’s labor union immediately hit back at the announcement, the top regulator was determined to see the plan through.

“The KRX will break away from its image as a market monopolist and henceforth place more focus on customer demands,” said KRX president Choi Kyung-soo in a press briefing on Thursday.

“We intend to rise as a globally competitive bourse by innovating our management system in accordance with the holding company system.”

The bourse, together with the Financial Services Commission, presented a set of strategies to enhance the competitiveness of the domestic stock market.

For years, the KRX and FSC have been working on the initial public offering but faced obstacles, including the government’s supervisory control ― which was released in January this year ― and the labor union’s persistent opposition.

The current stock market system was established in 2005 by consolidating the main exchange, the KOSPI, the tech-laden secondary KOSDAQ, and the futures and options sector. The KONEX for lower-tier companies was added to the list in 2013.

The key point of the restructuring plan is to establish a central holding company and to separate the affiliated markets as subsidiaries.

“(Separating market headquarters into subsidiaries) will expand the bourse’s business horizon beyond the conventional trades and into new sectors such as clearings, over-the-counter services, and information technology solutions,” the KRX said through a statement.

It will only increase the autonomy and responsibility of each sector, as the holding company will focus on business management while subsidiaries will perform market operations, it added.

The FSC, too, said the overhaul would increase the stock market’s efficiency and promised to alleviate regulations for the KOSDAQ so that it may grow into a new independent main bourse.

These efforts did little to persuade the KRX’s labor union.

“The FSC is pushing ahead with the restructuring plan, without reflecting the feedback from securities and future companies,” the union said through a statement.

Also, the introduction of the umbrella holding company will only lead to organization overgrowth and management inefficiency, it claimed.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)