Korea Exchange Bank Chairman Richard Wacker offered to resign from the board as the lender’s biggest shareholder Lone Star Funds pushes to sell the bank.

Wacker, 48, expressed his intention to quit for “personal reasons,” Kim Sun-gyu, spokesman for Korea Exchange Bank, said.

Wacker’s departure will be approved in a board meeting due early November and he will remain as an adviser to Chief Executive Officer Larry Klane, the bank said in an e-mailed statement.

Lone Star, the buyout fund controlled by John Grayken, has tried for four years to sell its holding in Korea Exchange Bank as regulators examined the circumstances of its investment in the Seoul-based lender. The bank has said it expects Lone Star to complete the sale of its stake this year.

Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., Australia’s third-largest lender by market value, is reviewing Korea Exchange Bank’s finances for the 57.3 percent stake 51 percent held by Lone Star and the remainder by Export Import Bank of Korea to expand into Korea, ANZ Bank said on Aug. 16. Lone Star’s 51 percent stake is worth 4.3 trillion won ($3.8 billion) at the current price.

Wacker, who has been focusing on the stake sale since Klane replaced him as chief executive officer in March 2009, will move to Hawaii to live with his family, the statement said. Wacker has worked for Korea Exchange Bank since February 2004 and his current term as chairman ends in March 2013, according to the bank’s regulatory filing in August. 

(Bloomberg)