lending: State-owned Korea Development Bank has become the latest Asian lender to increase its presence in Australia, flagging an appetite to take a bigger slice of the financing for government privatisation deals. 
KDB, which has about $US284 billion of assets, will today open its first Australian office in Sydney, becoming the 16th foreign bank with approval by The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority to operate a "representative office".
A further 40 banks operate in Australia through a "branch" structure, while seven others, including Citigroup and HSBC, operate as subsidiaries. In   September, Singapore's DBS Bank launched its first branch in Sydney and with plans to grow its corporate loan book to $5bn.
NSW Minister for Trade, Tourism and Major Events Stuart Ayres said KDB planned to provide financial advisory to Korean companies looking to invest in Australia. The bank had also indicated plans to focus on infrastructure construction projects and "opportunities presented through privatisation of NSW government assets", including the state's sale of leases for major electricity assets.
KDB formed part of a 10-bank strong syndicate that provided debt to the buyers of Port Botany and Port Kembla, privatised by the NSW government in 2013 for $5.1bn.
The deal kicked off NSW's privatisation program, which continued this month with a consortium paying $10.3bn to lease the government's electricity network TransGrid.
Asian banks have also been finding Australia a fertile hunting ground. According to Credit Suisse analysts, Bank of China has increased its market share of the corporate lending market from 1.55 per cent in   October 2014 to 1.88 per cent, while China Construction Bank grew from 0.2 to 0.37 per cent.
Japan's Mizuho increased market share from 1.03 per cent to 1.28 per cent, while Singapore's DBS Bank also increased from "virtually no share in   October 2014" to 0.07 per cent, the analysts found.In contrast, three of the big four domestic banks have lost market share in the period.