This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 4:28 p.m. on Jun. 19, 2026.
As KB Kookmin Bank was named a financial arranger for the first U.S. commercial floating liquefied natural gas facility (FLNG) project, the cooperation between Korea-U.S. investment bank (IB) units that made it possible is drawing attention. KB Kookmin Bank has been building its presence in large overseas project finance markets such as U.S. energy infrastructure and data centers, and observers say the backdrop is a localization strategy linking the New York IB unit, the head office's Global IB Sales Department, and the North America screening center.
According to the investment bank (IB) industry on the 19th, KB Kookmin Bank recently joined as a joint arranging institution for financing the Delfin FLNG project led by U.S. Delfin Midstream. The total financing is about 4 trillion won, and KB Kookmin Bank was the only Korean financial institution named as a lead arranger, arranging about 240 billion won.
Delfin FLNG is the first commercial FLNG development project pursued offshore in the United States. Natural gas supplied via onshore gas pipelines is liquefied on ship-shaped facilities floating at sea and then supplied. Samsung Heavy Industries won the first unit exclusively.
This transaction also aligns with U.S. policy to expand LNG exports. U.S. President Donald Trump has put LNG exports forward as a key energy policy task. The industry sees some LNG projects whose permits were delayed under the Biden administration picking up speed under the Trump administration.
The industry says close cooperation between the head office and local units enabled KB Kookmin Bank to participate in this deal.
KB Kookmin Bank has a New York IB unit under the CIB Customer Group led by Vice President Lee Won-jong. Nine personnel from the Investment Business Division are dispatched to the New York IB unit and collaborate in real time with the Global IB Sales Department under the Investment Business Division. The domestic head office's Global IB Sales Department and the New York unit jointly handled deal sourcing and execution, and core decisions such as underwriting size and risk limits were coordinated with Investment Business Division head Lee Dong-rak serving as the central axis.
Some screening functions were also placed locally. KB Kookmin Bank set up a North America screening center in New York in 2022. One Director General-level screening officer works there full-time, supporting initial deal reviews and consultations with local financial institutions. It has functions similar to the Asia screening center in Hong Kong. If all overseas deals are screened at the Seoul head office, time differences and lack of local information can delay decisions; the North America screening center fills that gap.
A financial industry official said, "In U.S. infrastructure finance, how quickly you negotiate terms on the ground with global financial institutions and make decisions is crucial," and added, "As the New York IB unit and the North America screening center moved together, I understand they accelerated the pace of the deal."
KB Kookmin Bank's Korea-U.S. IB cooperation has produced several results in energy and digital infrastructure. For example, this year it took part in the refinancing of the Trumbull Energy Center gas-fired power plant in Ohio. The deal refinanced the construction loan for a 950 MW-class gas-fired power plant, with total financing of $880 million. KB Kookmin Bank arranged $147 million of that.
It has also built experience with large transactions in the LNG field. Last year KB Kookmin Bank joined as an arranger for the LNG terminal project finance of Australian energy corporations Woodside Energy and global infrastructure manager Stonepeak. The total financing was $5.763 billion, and KB Kookmin Bank's arranged amount was $200 million.
KB Kookmin Bank is also widening its reach in data center finance. Last year it participated in project finance for an Amazon data center being developed by digital infrastructure-focused investment firm Blue Owl in Northern Virginia, United States. The total financing was $3.718 billion, and KB Kookmin Bank arranged $200 million. It is expanding its overseas infrastructure finance portfolio around data center projects backed by long-term contracts with global big tech companies such as Amazon, Google, and Meta.