South Korea's Hanwha Corp intends to buy solar Group Q-Cells, the insolvent German group said in a statement on Sunday, Reuters reported. Hanwha and Q-Cells' insolvency administrator Henning Schorisch had signed a contract, which needs to be approved by a creditors' meeting to be held on Aug. 29. Q-Cells, once the world's largest maker of solar cells, said Hanwha would take on liabilities, which amount to "the low hundreds of millions." In addition it would pay a "medium double-digit million-euro range" in cash," Q-cells said in the statement.

The government will likely suffer from a tax revenue shortfall this year as many businesses struggle to make profits due to plunging exports and sluggish domestic demand as a result of the global economic downturn, The Korea Times reported. Many salaried workers and self-employed people have seen their income shrink in the wake of the tight job market and other unfavorable economic conditions, making it difficult for state collectors to levy as much tax as they did last year.

The Korean corporate sector has gone into restructuring mode to cope with the worsening global economic downturn, selling assets to secure much-needed cash, and slimming down organizations to reduce operating costs, The Korea Times reported. But if things go from bad to worse, businesses are widely expected to implement a full-scale overhaul, that would send tens of thousands of workers onto the street as seen in the wake of the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.

The government said Thursday that it will step up efforts to support low-income households suffering from snowballing debt by offering them more low-cost financial products, The Korea Times reported. To that end, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) has decided to increase the amount of financial products tailored to the poor to 4 trillion won from the current 3 trillion. The new measure is aimed at reducing the financial burdens of low-income families to prevent them from becoming the epicenter of a household debt crisis.

Woori Financial Group audited its biggest subsidiary Woori Bank for two months, according to officials Wednesday, The Korea Times reported. The holding company found 30 insolvent loans worth 10 billion won from May 7 to July 6, and plans to punish those who authorized them. It is rare for a holding company to audit its subsidiary for over 40 days. The nation’s largest financial group said the move was due to the increasing number of nonperforming loans from Woori Bank compared to its counterparts and the company was concerned that its share prices would decline.

Alarm bells are sounding over the collapse in consumption, according to official figures that show high-income earners tightening their purse strings, The Korea Times reported. Sales at discount chains like E-Mart, Lotte Mart and Home plus plunged 7.4 percent year-on-year in June, the sharpest drop in 16 months, after being hit with a double-whammy of less spending and business-hour restrictions imposed by the government. It was the third consecutive month of revenue decline for the retailers, following a 5.7 percent drop in May and a 2.4 percent fall in April.

Creditors of Ssangyong Engineering & Construction (E&C) have decided to relinquish a controlling stake in the company by means of a private contract after open bids failed to achieve this end, The Korea Times reported. A German engineering firm, which took part in three previous bids, has emerged as the most likely to acquire one of Korea’s largest builders, according to industry officials Monday.

Woori Finance Holdings Co. and Hana Financial Group Inc. are among the bidders that have submitted initial offers to buy the troubled savings banks put up for sale by the government, people familiar with the matter said Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported. South Korea's laws stipulate that the government can intervene in a faltering financial firm, and the country's financial regulator put the four second-tier financial firms up for sale when it suspended their operations last month for six months due to their weak financial standing.

As Korea finds itself dragged into a disastrous vortex of faltering exports, collapsed consumer spending and spiraling debt, government officials appear at a loss on how to prevent the country’s fragile recovery from derailing, The Korea Times reported. But they could do much worse than starting from eliminating corruption and cronyism from the bureaucratic veins, according to a number of economists here. The subduing economy pretty much ensures that President Lee Myung-bak is going out on a whimper.

Things are going from bad to worse for large discount store chains these days as consumers have further tightened their wallets amid renewed concerns over the worldwide recession triggered by the eurozone debt crisis, The Korea Times reported. E-Mart, Home Plus, Lotte Mart and other discount store operators are also facing tightening regulations, chipping away at their bottom line, as the government and political parties target them to garner support from those running small mom-and-pop shops.