South Korea’s online-only bank Kakao Bank is issuing shares worth 750 billion won ($664 million), of which 250 billion won worth would go to U.S. private equity fund TPG.

Kakao Bank said on Tuesday that its board approved a plan to issue 31,916,595 in new common shares at 23,500 won apiece. The capitalization will add 750 billion won to unlisted Kakao Bank’s net worth of 8.58 trillion won.

Kakao Bank, a profit-making online bank under the country’s widely-used chat platform Kakao, plans to go public in the first half of next year.

TPG would become a new shareholder with its share of 10.64 million new issues of Kakao Bank worth 250 billion won. The payment will become complete on Nov. 12.

TPG – headquartered in San Francisco and Fort Worth – is known to have invested in U.S. ride-hailing giant Uber, Sweden-based music streaming giant Spotify, and Baidu Financial managed by China’s largest search engine Baidu. The hedge fund manages $103.3 billion in capital.

The other 500 billion won worth new shares will be allocated to existing shareholders based on current ownership ratio. Currently, Kakao Corp. owns 33.5 percent of Kakao Bank, Korea Investment Value Asset Management 28.6 percent, KB Kookmin Bank 9.9 percent, Korea Investment Holdings 4.9 percent, Netmarble 3.9 percent, and Yes24 2 percent.

The new shares will be allocated to the current shareholders on Nov. 11 and payment must be made by Dec. 29.

The fresh capital will refuel BIS capital adequacy ratio that has fallen recently due to a surge in loans. Its capital base will be bolstered to 2.58 trillion won after recapitalization. The partnership with the U.S. fund will allow the bank to leverage on its global network.

Shares of Kakao closed Wednesday 3.74 percent higher at 346,500 won.

By Lee Sae-ha and Lee Eun-joo

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