Woori Bank will provide financial support worth about 548 billion won after selecting 45 mid-sized companies in advanced industries such as semiconductors, bio and AX together with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Woori Bank said it has made the final selection of 45 companies for the eighth intake of its mid-sized company financial support programme, Rising Leaders 300.

Rising Leaders 300 is a programme that identifies mid-sized companies with technological capabilities and growth potential and supports them with financial and non-financial services. Woori Bank and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy have jointly operated it since 2023.

For the eighth intake, the programme posted its recruitment notice a month earlier than the previous year to bring forward the support timetable. Another feature is that it reorganised the existing DX category into an AX category to reflect industrial change.

Through recommendations from the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Korea Federation of SMEs, the Korea Industrial Intelligence Association (KOIIA) and the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT), and a review by Woori Bank, it selected 45 companies including Kolmar Holdings, STATS ChipPAC Korea and Lion Chemtech.

Woori Bank will provide loans of up to 30 billion won per company and offer interest-rate benefits of up to 1.0 percentage point in the first year.

It also plans to support non-financial services, including export-import finance, consulting for overseas expansion and corporate succession solutions.

Park Hwa-geun (박화근), head of Woori Bank's corporate sales strategy department, said, "We will continue financial support to strengthen the competitiveness of mid-sized companies."