South Korean insurer Kyobo Life Insurance is selling 30% of its stake in the firm in an auction, which is expected to be worth $2bn.
Sources close to the matter told The Financial Times that the deal has attracted interest from private equity firms such as Affinity Equity Partners, BK private equity and Carlyle.
The Korea Economic Daily quoted industry sources as saying that a consortium was formed by Carlyle with United Arab Emirates wealth fund, while Affinity teamed up with Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) to buy the stake in Kyobo, originally held by Daewoo.
TPG and Vogo Capital, though expressed interest in the deal, have been reported that they did not submit their proposals.
According to the country's regulations, any foreign firm would have to enter into a partnership with local companies as the law does not allow any non-local firm to own more than 10% of any insurer.
Blackstone and KKR held back from participating in the auction due to issues related to corporate governance with a minority stake, as reported by the news agency.
Founded in 1958, Kyobo controls about 35% of shares, while Daewoo International controlled more than 30% that was acquired by steelmaker Posco and by Kamco after the Asian financial crisis.
