After becoming preferred bidder earlier this year, On December 20, 2006, Shinhan Financial Group signed an agreement with Korea Development Bank, the Presiding Bank representing the 14 Creditor Financial Institutions, to acquire a 78.58% stake in LG Card at KRW67,770 per share. The price amounts to 6.68 trillion won ($7.19 billion), according to Reuters. The … [Read More]
Category: Business & economy (page 12)
Death of the worlds oldest company
A Japanese company which, according to the Chosun Ilbo, has its roots in Korea, is to go into liquidation in January 2007. The company, temple builder Kongo Gumi, was founded in 578. Links: Family Business list of the world’s oldest companies Time Magazine article (Feb 2004) Kongo Gumi website [Read More]
Movie industry export earnings decline
A rather gloomy article in the Chosun Ilbo, following on from a melancholy thinkpiece by Darcy a few weeks ago. 1. The number of loss-making Korean movies is on the increase An increasing number of Korean movies are losing money due to a surge in the number of movies and sluggish overseas interest. The number … [Read More]
London lawyer smells a rat
A while back I posted about the various creative fund-raising techniques the DPRK is accused of using. Michael Payton, a senior partner in Clyde & Co’s insurance practice, is homing in on another one. The Korea Times reports on the smoking gun: The alleged fraud involves a wide variety of North Korean industrial and personal … [Read More]
IBK celebrates London Branch opening
Industrial Bank of Korea celebrated the opening of its London branch yesterday evening, at an event attended by the ambassador. Set out below is the ambassador’s speech. It is a great pleasure to be here with you all this evening. Firstly I would like to congratulate the Industrial Bank of Korea on opening its branch … [Read More]
The financial pulling power of Korea’s soccer stars
Readers may recall that during this year’s World Cup I spotted a couple of news items reporting how Korean banks were using football to get in new business. But it’s not just the national team which pulls in the financial punters. Park Ji-sung, the sportsman with the biggest brand power in Korea, has been used … [Read More]
Liberalisation of the Korean legal services market: a view from inside
Last week the England & Wales Law Society posted a press release on their site announcing the publication of the draft bill that “would give foreign legal consultants access to the country’s legal services market”: The publication of the draft bill on foreign legal consultants paves the way for solicitors’ firms to open offices in … [Read More]
Sea-Jin Chang: Financial Crisis and Transformation of Korean Business Groups
The Rise and Fall of Chaebols (Cambridge, 2003) A welcome and very detailed examination of the history and structure of the Korean business conglomerates. The strengths of this book are manifold. First and foremost is the wealth of evidence sourced from the Korea Information Service which provides some raw data for some hard conclusions. And … [Read More]
KEB: the raids continue
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 … [Read More]
Winners and losers in Korean equities
KBS reported recently (in an article so confused in its arithmetic as to be downright misleading – and frankly makes you wonder whether they’ve got anywhere near reality) how foreigners made $90bn gains on Korean stocks last year. I’m sure there are rogue nationalistic elements around who might lament the fact that anyone apart from … [Read More]
A regulatory nerd picks apart a Hankyoreh article
An interesting article (at least for that tiny population of amateur Koryologists whose day job involves bank regulatory capital ratios) in the Hankyoreh about Kookmin’s acquisition of Korea Exchange Bank. As usual though, one gets frustrated reading stories written by people who don’t have a clue what they’re talking about and which are not properly … [Read More]
Delay in opening up Korean legal market
As was inevitable, the collapse of the Doha round of free trade talks have put on hold the limited freeing-up of the Korean legal market. They have now been put in the queue behind the interminable negotiations of the bilateral FTA with the US, according to the England & Wales Law Society Gazette. Reading the … [Read More]
Samsung chief visits his favourite football club
The boss was over from Korea, so there was a Samsung management team outing to see Chelsea draw 1-1 with Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge last Saturday, according to the JoongAng Daily. Lee Kun-hee used the occasion to compare a successful business with a successful football club. “The premier league is where the best athletes … [Read More]
Seoul’s relations with Africa and Cuba
AidanFC’s recent article in the Asia Times noted that South Korea now has diplomatic relations with all the African countries, with the opening of ambassador-level relations with the Republic of Guinea on 28 August. He gives some of the history There was a time when Guinea was a beacon of the Afro-Asian struggle against colonialism. … [Read More]
An event for British lawyers eager for a Korean vacation
From this week’s Law Society Gazette The British-Korean Law Association will hold its inaugural meeting at the Law Society on 12 Sepember at 6pm. The bilateral association aims to develop ties between the UK and Korea. The meeting will include a discussion of Korea’s draft Legal Consultants Bill. For information, email fiona dot whittenbury at … [Read More]
Foreign bank first half results
Korea’s foreign banks had a rosier first half of 2006, after a not too hot full year 2006, where the results were hit by poor positioning in their interest rate books – they were caught out by interest rate increases. Below are the results for the first six months, compared with the same period last … [Read More]