The Korea Times

Korean employees want to work into their 60s

By Kang Seung-woo Korean employees want to remain in their jobs until around the age of 64, a poll by a local online recruitment site said Thursday. But they expect retirement to come earlier than they would like. In addition, the study showed they believe their companies need to extend the retirement age. In Korea, there is no legal retirement age and each firm makes a decision based on its own regulations. According to Job Korea, which surveyed a total of 1,363 office workers on the desirable age for retirement, men said they would like to work until they are 64, while women favored 64.2. By age, those in their 20s averaged 63.8, their 30s 64.4, 40s 64.1 and 50s 63.9. However, the employees believe that they will have to leave their jobs earlier, as men said the age they are likely to remain in employment is 61.6, while women expected to work until 58. The poll also said that 89 percent of the respondents want to lengthen the retirement age, with only 11 percent satisfied with the current retirement age. Among supporters for the extension, 72.1 percent sa

Jun 2, 2011By Kang Seung-woo

Companies

KTB sued for losses from savings bank

By Kang Seung-woo Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) and Samsung Dream Scholarship Foundation are set to take KTB Asset Management to court for losses from their investment in a troubled local savings bank. Through the asset manager’s private equity fund (PEF), the two sides invested 50 billion won ($46.4 million) apiece in Busan Savings Bank in June last year, when the nation’s largest secondary bank carried out a paid-in capital increase worth 150 billion won. But, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) suspended the operations of the savings bank and its affiliate Daejeon Mutual Savings Bank on Feb. 17, citing capital inadequacy caused by mounting insolvent project financing (PF) loans. As a result, POSTECH and Samsung ended up losing all their money. They said KTB cajoled them to put their money into the suspended bank, bragging about its involvement in Busan’s acquisitions of Jungang Busan Savings Bank in 2006 and Daejeon Mutual Savings Bank in 2008 and its familiarity with Busan. KTB CEO Chang In-whan and Park Yeon-ho, chairman of Busan Savin

Jun 1, 2011By Kang Seung-woo

Companies

S-Oil to tap into solar PV business

By Kang Seung-woo S-Oil said Monday that the Korean oil refiner will enter the solar photovoltaic (PV) business after deciding to acquire a 33.4 percent stake in Hankook Silicon, a local producer of poly-silicon, for 265 billion won ($245.39 million). The deal is expected to help the company make a foray into the renewable energy business and gain added competitiveness in oil refining. With the deal, S-Oil will become the second largest shareholder next to Osung LST and participate jointly in the management of Hankook Silicon. Both sides are scheduled to finalize the transaction in June. Hankook Silicon started the production of high purity poly-silicon in 2010 ― the second fastest among local firms ― and currently has a capacity of 3,500 tons per year. According to S-Oil, the silicon firm has proven technology and competitiveness, having succeeded in the mass-production of poly-silicon with the world’s highest level of purity (9-Nine) in a very short period of time after its plant construction. The company is expected to expand to become a world-class poly-silico

May 30, 2011By Kang Seung-woo

Companies

Household education tab down for 1st time in 6 years

By Kang Seung-woo Household spending on education in the first three months of 2011 took the sharpest fall in six years due to fewer students and more tuition exemption benefits, a government agency said Monday. According to a report from Statistics Korea, local households with more than two family members across the nation spent an average of 292,357 won ($270.72) per month on education-related expenses, down 4.7 percent from 306,791 won a year earlier. The decline marks the steepest since the 6.2 percent drop recorded in the first quarter of 2005. The report said that a 4.6 percent, or 6,392 won, contraction in private education played a major role in lowering the overall spending on education, as it accounted for 44.3 percent of the total fall. “A smaller number of students and more extracurricular and online study programs provided by schools and public educational offices played a role in less money being spent on private academies,” the statistical office said. “In the future, the number of students will decline at a faster pace, so household spending on educa

May 30, 2011By Kang Seung-woo

Companies

S-Oil begins operations at bulked-up Ulsan plant

By Kang Seung-woo Completion of a refinery expansion plan has lifted S-Oil to stand among the world’s leading petrochemical-suppliers. The company has started full-scale operations of a large petrochemical plant at its factory in Onsan, Ulsan, North Gyeongsang Province, beefing up production of paraxylene (PX) and other petrochemical products including benzene. As part of its efforts to create new growth engines, S-Oil invested a total of 1.3 trillion won ($1.20 billion) in the No. 2 Aromatic Complex construction project to build facilities that would more than double the refiner’s petrochemical production capacity. It broke ground for the expansion project on Jun. 11 2009 and the complex was ready in March this year. After two months of test runs the firm has recently started operating at full capacity. The operation of the No. 2 Aromatic Complex will enable S-Oil to annually produce 1,600,000 tons of PX, the largest among single plants in the world, and cement its position as one of the most competitive suppliers of petrochemical products. The company expects the ope

May 29, 2011By Kang Seung-woo

Companies

Banks household lending rises

By Kang Seung-woo Outstanding household loans from 18 banks have been gaining at a quicker pace over the past four months of 2011 from a year ago due to increased home-backed loans, the financial watchdog said Thursday. According to the latest data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), bank lending to households increased by 6.3 trillion won ($5.72 billion) in the January-to-April period from the end of 2010. For the same period a year ago it amounted to 2.4 trillion won. At the end of April, banks’ household lending reached 433.9 trillion won. Last year’s figure was 429.5 trillion won. The increasing loans came one day after the Bank of Korea (BOK) had announced Korea’s household debt stood at 801.4 trillion won as the end of March this year. The FSS pointed out that the rising lending by commercial banks is due to an expansion in home-backed loans. Banks’ home-backed lending, which accounts for a majority of banks’ loans, grew by 5.4 trillion won quarter-on-quarter to 289.9 trillion won in the first quarter. In addition, the financial watchdog has conducted

May 27, 2011By Kang Seung-woo

Companies

Lending cap for savings banks

By Kang Seung-woo Savings banks will have new caps on their lending from the second half of this year as the financial authorities are telling them to get on a better financial footing. According to the Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), they are set to come up with new credit guidelines for lending in July and the limits are expected to be 10 billion won for corporate entities, 3 billion won for self-employed businesses and 600 million won for individual borrowers. Currently, the lending limit, regardless of the entity, is set at 8 billion won, but the financial regulators are likely to differentiate it to put the brakes on secondary banks’ reckless lending and prevent their loans from going sour. According to them, the credit ceiling of corporations could remain at the current level or increase to 10 billion won, while borrowers from self-employed businesses may see it decline to 3 billion won. The financial authorities will allow savings banks to reduce their maxed-out lending gradually by giving them a grace period in

May 26, 2011By Kang Seung-woo

Companies

Shinhan setting pace

By Kim Tong-hyung Last year was quite dismal for the Shinhan Financial Group, which was rattled by a bitter internal management feud that resulted in full-blown upheaval in the executive suite. In fact, so much ink and so many electrons were spent to cover the public relations (PR) mess that one could almost forget that Shinhan still led all banking groups in profit by a comfortable margin in 2010. Now regrouped and refocused, the reigning pound-for-pound king of the financial sector vows to show what it can do at full strength. ``Our rivals still rely heavily on their banking business in their portfolios, but we are the only banking group that has a healthy balance between banking and non-banking divisions,’’ said Shinhan Financial Chairman Han Dong-woo in a news conference in March, shortly after he replaced interim boss Ryoo Shee-yul at the management helm. ``Throughout the years, Shinhan has drawn its core strength from its organizational culture driven by pursuit of efficiency and fair competition. This culture has been embedded thoroughly into our corporate syste

May 24, 2011By Kang Seung-woo

Companies

Korea Life expects solid numbers

By Kang Seung-woo Korea Life Insurance put on a solid performance in fiscal 2010, as the firm improved its profitability and financial health. Korea Life, the country’s oldest insurance company, registered 481.3 billion won ($444.72 million) in net income during the year that ended on March 31, up 15.1 percent from the previous fiscal year, while its risk-based capital (RBC) ratio, a measurement of an insurer’s soundness, hit 235.3 percent, soaring by 27.4 percentage points during the same period. As of the end of March, Korea Life’s total

May 24, 2011By Kang Seung-woo

Companies

Hedge fund to make debut

By Kang Seung-woo The first local hedge funds are likely to be created earlier than expected, as the nation’s financial regulator plans to go all out to introduce them in Korea. “In order to speed up the introduction of ‘Korean-style’ hedge funds, I have ordered an amendment to the enforcement decree of the capital market law,” Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chairman Kim Seok-dong said in a seminar on hedge funds held in Seoul on Monday evening. The FSC had planned to submit a revision bill to the capital market law to parliament in July or August in its effort to spur the creation of local hedge funds. But instead of overhauling the regulation, the FSC has decided to amend the law’s enforcement decree, which may take two to three months, to save time and head off potential disagreements during the law revision process. A hedge fund is privately pooled money used by investors to generate high investment returns through risky bets using a wide range of investment strategies, including short selling and leveraged buyouts. The regulatory change is expected to allo

May 24, 2011By Kang Seung-woo

Kang Seung-woo

Read more

Korean employees want to work into their 60s

KTB sued for losses from savings bank

S-Oil to tap into solar PV business

Household education tab down for 1st time in 6 years

S-Oil begins operations at bulked-up Ulsan plant

Banks household lending rises

Lending cap for savings banks

Shinhan setting pace

Korea Life expects solid numbers

Hedge fund to make debut

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