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Category Archives: KEB

Developed Market status and other recent business stories

21-Sep-08

Developed Market status and other recent business stories

In a week when the most developed market in the world has not particularly covered itself in glory, after years in the waiting room it was announced this week that Korea would be admitted into the FTSE club of developed markets. According to the FT (South Korea wins developed-country status, 18 Sept 2008), this could result in a net inflow of $25bn into the Korean stock market as funds which track the global developed market index rebalance their portfolios (while those that track the emerging market index sell out). The Korea Exchange has a slightly more conservative figure – $16bn (Source: Forbes.com). In the same week, it was announced that HSBC no longer wants to buy KEB - at least not at ...
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Top banking watchdog in town. You too can quiz him

27-May-08
Dr Jun Kwang Woo, the Chairman of the Korean Financial Services Commission, is in Paris and London this week for a range of meetings, including the UK finance minister and the FSA. He will also be speaking to the Korea Discussion Group at Chatham House on Friday afternoon at 4pm. His subject is Korea's responses to challenges from the global financial markets. The gathering will be chaired by Dr John Llewellyn, Senior Economic Policy Advisor at Lehman Brothers. Interested parties can join the discussion group by pre-registering (details at the bottom of this article). Further background on Dr Jun’s talk: Developments in international financial markets have brought opportunities for faster growth and expansion. At the same time, developments also mean that the ...
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KEB blow by blow

23-Aug-07
Reports of HSBC's renewed interest in KEB have given me the impetus to resurrect a post which has been work-in-progress for a while. I've been periodically trying to google back in time to reconstruct the whole KEB saga, and yesterday's FT coverage gave a very useful framework on which to build. So here is another of my collections of links around a particular story, which I'll update as and when I come across more. The chronology and narrative is from the FT. The links are mine, many of them via Tom Coyner. August 2003 Lone Star agrees to pay Won1,400bn ($1.5bn) to take control of ailing Korea Exchange Bank. Lone Star to purchase Korean bank today, JoongAng Daily, 27 August 2003 New player in ...
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KEB: the raids continue

25-Oct-06
In a seemingly never-ending quest to blame someone for the profits that Lone Star made out of their KEB investment, the prosecutors recently knocked on the doors of Citibank's Seoul office and impounded paperwork and PCs. The BBC reports (17 October): The investigation follows claims that KEB's financial ill-health had been exaggerated so as to speed up the sale of a 50.5% stake to Lone Star in 2003. The buy cost Lone Star 1.4 trillion won (£802m; $1.2bn). Now it is selling its 71% KEB stake for 6.95 trillion won. Citigroup advised Lone Star on its KEB buy, and on its current sale. Above image from the KBS site. Related posts:KEB blow by blow Reports of HSBC’s renewed interest in KEB have given ...
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Saying Sorry with cash

22-Apr-06
I haven't been following the Hyundai Slush Fund story, but Hyundai hopes to have drawn a line under it with a $1bn charitable donation. Samsung apparently adopted a similar approach to the tune of $840mn last year. Lone Star, meanwhile, is making a $100mn donation as a goodwill gesture in relation to its KEB purchase and sale. As Aidan Foster-Carter points out, Lone Star getting the cheque book out sets a grim precedent for other foreign businesses. The Herald Tribune has a good article, while the related comment in the FT (Guy de Jonquieres) has the headline: "Kow-tows in Korea do not buy public trust". Elsewhere in the FT, Anna Fifield put things in a slightly more cheerful light: "S ...
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