Hyundai could sue bank over name
By Kim Tae-gyu
Hyundai Motor Group, Korea’s leading carmaker, and Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world’s No. 1 shipbuilder, are mulling over bringing to court a domestic community bank that has refused to drop Hyundai from its title.
Hyundai Motor Group said Sunday that the company will possibly file a lawsuit in the near future with a Seoul court to request Hyundai Swiss Savings Bank remove Hyundai from its title.
``Along with eight other companies, we have worked on preventing Hyundai Swiss from using Hyundai through our legal consultancy Lee & Ko,’’ a Hyundai Motor Group spokesman said.
``Midway through this month, we asked Hyundai Swiss to do so but it refused. We are set to take legal action so that people will no longer associate Hyundai Swiss with us.’’
Included in the co-plaintiffs are Hyundai Engineering & Construction, the nation’s top contractor that was acquired by Hyundai Motor earlier this year.
Hyundai Motor and Hyundai Heavy seem to be ready for the measure in the wake of the recent savings bank fiasco. The operations of eight savings banks out of 104 were suspended this year due to their precarious financial conditions.
As a result, the reputation of small-sized lenders has deteriorated.
In this climate, Hyundai Swiss of late came up with a TV commercial featuring sports star Kim Jae-bak, who managed the Hyundai Unicorns for up to 11 years from 1996 through 2006.
The now-defunct professional baseball team in the domestic league was financially backed by Hyundai subsidiaries.
Hyundai Motor and Hyundai Heavy suspect that Hyundai Swiss has attempted to link the savings bank to them by taking advantage of Kim’s image, which would be good for brand awareness.
In response, Hyundai Swiss counters that the Seoul-based financial entity has used Hyundai at its title for more than a decade, since 1999.
Ever since the Hyundai empire was founded by the late Chung Ju-yung in the late 1940s, the conglomerate was divided into a few groups while second-generation tycoons took power.
Hyundai Motor Group is the largest block followed by Hyundai Heavy. There is also Hyundai Group, which is headed by Hyun Jeong-eun, the widow of founder Jung’s fifth son Mong-hun.
Hyundai Group claims legitimacy as the representative of the Hyundai empire as the founder designated Mong-hun as his official successor before his death.
Mong-hun jumped to his demise in 2003 from his office in the midst of probes concerning money payments to North Korea.
There is also a savings bank with Samsung in its name, TS Samsung Mutual Savings & Bank, but Korea’s top conglomerate, Samsung Group, has yet to take issue with the title of the lender, owned by sugar maker TS Corp.