By Yoon Ja-young
Staff Reporter
The National Assembly Budget Office reported Thursday that 13 state enterprises recorded 709.9 billion won in losses from equity investment over the past five years.
Korea Expressway Corporation, for example, invested in Dreamline, which was delisted from the junior Kosdaq stock market in 2003 due to the worsening performance of its Internet business. It incurred 32.1 billion won in losses for Korea Expressway.
Korea National Oil Corporation, meanwhile, sustained a 10.5 billion won loss from investing in Micronic Korea, Webcash and Gate Bank. The three firms are unrelated to oil projects.
Korea Railroad lost over 15 billion won in investments in stations built from private funds; and the Korea National Housing Corporation incurred 131.3 billion won in losses and Korea Land Corporation, 344.3 billion won, on subordinate bonds they acquired through asset-backed securitization.
The Korea Appraisal Board, which guaranteed loans of its subsidiary Korea Real Estate Trust, shouldered 30 billion won in debt as the subsidiary went bankrupt.
The budget office warned that Korea National Housing Corporation and Korea Land Corporation, for example, could sustain further losses in their 125.6 billion investment in real estate project financing.
The Korea Tourism Organization is also likely to see further loss in its investment in a convention center in Jeju.