South Korea

Mahindra & Mahindra, India’s foremost producer of sports utility vehicles (SUV), took the first step to acquire Ssangyong Motor, Korea’s smallest automaker, after the two signed a memorandum of understanding Monday, The Korea Times reported. Early this month, Mahindra was picked as the preferred bidder of the flagging Korean carmaker. After completing due diligence, both sides are set to finalize a definite agreement later this year, possibly in November.

Household and corporate debts are continuing on an upward trend, spawning fears that they will combine to create a toxic cocktail for the Korean economy with the prolonged slump in the real estate market, The Korea Times reported. The central bank said Tuesday that households and corporate lending reached 1,409 trillion won ($1.2 trillion) in June, as a low interest rate led them to take out loans from financial companies.

About three in 10 households suffered from a deficit in the second quarter, the worst figure in six years, and further confirmation that the ongoing recovery has not yet benefited the household economy, The Korea Times reported. According to Statistics Korea, 28.1 percent of households sustained a deficit from April to June, up 0.3 percentage points compared to the same period in the previous year. It is the worst ratio in the comparison of the same quarter since 2004, when 28.2 percent surveyed said that their expenditure surpassed their “disposable” income.

Cash-strapped South Korean car maker Ssangyong Motor Co., still under bankruptcy protection, Friday said improved sales helped narrow net losses in the second quarter, with an expanded product lineup in the second half to further boost earnings in the second half, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The net loss narrowed to KRW21.54 billion ($18 million) in the three months ended June 30 from KRW177.17 billion a year earlier, the result of higher sales and debt-rescheduling associated with its court-ordered bankruptcy protection, Ssangyong said in a statement.

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., India’s biggest maker of sport-utility vehicles, is the preferred bidder for a controlling stake in Ssangyong Motor Co., the South Korean automaker said today, Bloomberg reported. Ssangyong, operating under bankruptcy protection, plans to sign a preliminary agreement with Mahindra by the end of August and aims to sign a contract for the sale in November, it said in a statement to the Korea Exchange. The company will begin talks with Indian rolling stock maker Raghav Industries Ltd.

The debt-ridden Korea Land and Housing Corp. (LH), the state-run housing company, says its financial troubles will force it to kill or water down most of its 140 new housing and redevelopment projects around the country, The Korea Times reported. And the government, caught between letting the air out of the bubble and creating another one, is quick to turn its back on its ailing mule, although its ineptitude in real-estate policies is blamed for creating much of LH’s troubles in the first place.

Ailing South Korean automaker Ssangyong Motor said Tuesday it had extended the deadline for final bids for a controlling stake in the firm following requests from bidders for more time, Agence France-Presse reported. The deadline was extended from July 20 to August 10. Ssangyong said six bidders, including an alliance of France's Renault and Japan's Nissan Motor, had joined the race. The preliminary bidders also include Young An Hat, a local headgear company which owns bus maker Daewoo Bus, and India's top utility vehicle company Mahindra and Mahindra, Yonhap news agency said.

Investors are finding a new appetite in the savings bank industry, as troubled thrifts are putting themselves on sale under a government-led restructuring drive, The Korea Times reported. Many savings banks have suffered liquidity problems as a large part of their loans are tied to investments in the depressed property market. Boutique investment bankers in Yeoido, the financial center of Seoul, are busy throwing sales pitches to potential investors these days, sources said Friday. The potential buyers range from private equities to insurance and construction firms.

The hike of the key interest rate in Korea is expected to weigh on households and corporations with large debts, and further cool down already-chilly investor sentiment in the real estate market, The Korea Times reported. The Bank of Korea lifted the benchmark seven-day repurchase rate by 0.25 percentage points to 2.25 percent last week after maintaining it at a record-low 2 percent for almost two years to grapple with the global economic downturn.

South Korean banks have selected 65 companies to undergo a restructuring program - a majority of which will receive support from creditors to normalize operations - as the government pushes the banks to weed out weak businesses that could threaten the economy, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service said in a joint statement Friday that of the 65 companies, 16 are in the construction sector, three in the shipbuilding sector and one in the shipping sector.