Tag: business

If any ROK Heads have a few billion dollars lying around you could use it to buy the Korean retail giant Homeplus if you are interested.  It will be interesting to see what changes will be made once Homeplus is sold off:

Private equity groups are expected to submit final bids to take over the nation’s second-largest supermarket chain Homeplus, valued at about 7 trillion won ($5.86 billion), amid growing speculation that two Korean retail firms are mulling to join the deal when the preferred bidder is announced, according to sources on Sunday.

Five shortlisted private equity firms formed three consortiums for Monday’s final bidding for Homeplus, wholly owned by Tesco. The British retail giant put up its Korean unit for auction in a bid to scale back the mounting debt and fund a turnaround plan.

Sources said the Korean confectionery company Orion and local retail giant Hyundai Department store are eyeing to join the bid as strategic investors.

“As Orion continues to show a strong will to buy Homeplus, there’s potential that it will link up with a private equity fund to be selected as a preferred bidder,” an official at an investment bank said.

The snack-maker, which failed to make the final list of five bidders, has been seeking a foray into the supermarket industry as its growth slows.

The preferred bidder is expected to be announced in September while the takeover deal to be wrapped up by the end of this year.  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link.

The Lone Star issue continues to make headlines.  This time it is about how Lone Star bribed an activist group leader to essentially shut up.  So if there was any doubt, everyone now knows it is illegal to bribe activist groups in South Korea:

A local court sentenced the head of a private watchdog to two years in prison for taking bribes from Lone Star Funds in return for dropping protests over the U.S. firm’s local deal and trying to help it settle a stock manipulation trial.

The Seoul Central District Court ordered Jang Hwa-sik, the head of Spec Watch Korea, also to forfeit 800 million won (US$681,000), he received in 2011 from Yoo Hoe-won, former head of Lone Star’s local unit.

“Despite fairness and integrity expected for him as an executive of an organization whose nature is clearly of public concern, he used his position in taking the heavy amount of financial reward,” the court said.

Jang, formerly a head of the labor union at Korea Exchange Bank (KEB), had led protests against Lone Star’s profit taking in the firm’s purchase and reselling of KEB.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

It's son vs son in a battle for control of South Korea's huge Lotte Group. http://t.co/mT2SBHAkv3 pic.twitter.com/dgmaZ76Abc

— Alastair Gale (@AlastairGale) August 6, 2015

Dieter Schmitt, who has run business tours to North Korea, looks at some of the opportunities and pitfalls: http://t.co/2BUVAq20mt

— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) July 9, 2015

Via the Sawon website they are collecting a list of the most inappropriate business emails in Korea.  Some of them are quite funny like ilovemyself@company.com and penismight@company.com.  Can anyone think of other funny emails they have seen?:

It’s an epidemic!

Ok maybe that language is a bit strong but it is certainly a trend that needs addressing. Korean workers are guilty of choosing very odd and sometimes inappropriate work email handles. Clearly Korean companies first mistake is that they give their workers a choice of email handle, but I am very appreciative that they have given workers the freedom to make their own mistakes.

Those who have been involved with Korea before at a business or even academic level would have come across this

What’s more surprising is that Korean corporate culture is itself very structured and governed by a very formal set of perceived rules and etiquette, whether it be introductions, exchanging business cards or even having a drink together there is a raft of small but very important etiquette to be observed for Korean business people.

Picture the scenario of exchanging a business card in a Korean business context- you bow and shake hands with your left hand under your right to show respect, you then receive a business card with both hands again to show respect and scan the card politely, in this instance you look down to the email and see something like “ilovemyself@company.com” (by the way that is a REAL example).  [The Sawon via Reddit]

You can read more at the link.

Pyongyang's trade fair was very well-attended, but dwindling number of foreign companies: http://t.co/Ph3d5keUnd

— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) June 20, 2015

I just don’t see many of the South Korean chain stores ever making it big outside of Korean-American communities.  Can anyone picture Paris Baguette in major cities when it would be competing against someone like Panera Bread?. Can anyone think of a Korean chain that could make it big in the US?:

Korean firms are scrambling to set up shop in New York City as a litmus test for how ready they are for the global market. With the growing interest in Korean culture in the U.S., they feel this may be the right time to make inroads into the market.

Cosmetics firms are leading the trend. Amore Pacific opened its store at Bloomingdale’s department store in Manhattan last week, a first for a Korean cosmetic firm.

“To succeed in the global market, you first need to advance into New York, the trend-setting city,” said a company spokesman. Amore Pacific opened its first New York store in 2003 and now operates 26 in the city.

Laneige also opened an outlet in a big supermarket in the U.S. last year. Tonymoly started in New York in August last year and already operates six stores there.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but I think a major luxury hotel brand like Lotte has a chance of gaining some market share in major cities but that is about it.  Cosmetics may have a chance of gaining some market share as well, but I think even that will be challenging.

I have not even heard of this company before, but its Korean-American owner was featured in Forbes as one of the most successful self made women:

Thai Lee, a 56-year-old Korean-American businesswoman, has one of the largest female-owned businesses in the U.S., Forbes reported Wednesday.

Lee was featured in the first ever list of America’s “top 50 most successful, self-made women.”

Lee is CEO of Software House International, an unlisted company specializing in software sales and services.

Headquartered in Somerset, New Jersey, SHI operates about 30 branches in Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, and the U.K., as well as in the U.S. With 3,000 staff and 17,500 clients, it had sales of US$6 billion last year, making it one of the top three minority-owned businesses in the U.S.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but good on her for making her company into the billion dollar business it is today.

I did not realize how little of Samsung Electronics that the Lee family actually owned:

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Two key Samsung companies are merging in a step toward ensuring the son of the group’s ailing chairman inherits control of the theme parks to smartphones conglomerate.

Samsung said Tuesday that its defacto holding company Cheil Industries Inc. will acquire Samsung C&T Corp. by offering 0.35 new Cheil shares for every Samsung C&T share.

The move, to be completed by Sept. 1, requires shareholder approval, which is expected. The combined entity will be named Samsung C&T.

Analysts say the transaction will give Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong a big say in the conglomerate including its crown jewel Samsung Electronics Co.

“Samsung Electronics is at the core of this event,” said Park Ju-gun, president at CEOScore, a private corporate watchdog. “If Lee Jae-yong controls C&T, he can secure control over Samsung Electronics.”

The corporate maneuvering reflects that the Lee family’s influence over Samsung Electronics through a life insurance company was at risk as the South Korean parliament is set to pass a law that restricts finance companies from controlling non-finance companies.

Lee, his father Lee Kun-hee and other family members have a small direct stake in Samsung Electronics but have been able to exert influence through cross shareholdings in affiliated companies, the most significant of which was Samsung Life Insurance. Altogether, they control about 29 percent of Samsung Electronics shares, which is the largest voting bloc.

Lee Kun-hee, 73, who remains chairman at Samsung Electronics, has been hospitalized for more than a year after suffering a heart attack in May, 2014. Lee Jae-yong earlier this month took over his father’s roles in two Samsung charitable foundations.

The Lee family will likely take additional steps to enlarge C&T’s stake Samsung Electronics as a lynchpin of the cross shareholdings, said Park. It currently owns 4.1 percent of the electronics giant.  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link. 

The 20 biggest, most powerful and most valuable companies in the world: http://t.co/eTDPmHxAqC pic.twitter.com/r1R6uQD7dX

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) May 6, 2015