The sale of Woori Finance Holdings fell through on Friday as none of the expected bidders made a bid.
The state-controlled financial company failed to be privatized as no one applied for the preliminary bids for the 57 percent government stake in Woori.
KB Financial Group decided not to make a bid two days ahead of the deadline for preliminary bidding, and so did Kyobo Life Insurance, the Korean Federation of Community Credit Cooperatives, which had considered forming consortia for the bid, and MBK Partners, a private equity fund.
Under the law on state contracts, for the sale of a government-owned stake in a company, at least two entities must take part in the bid for open competition.
Attempts to sell Woori Finance fell through in 2010 and 2011 due to lack of investor interest.
