Foreign investors who helped South Korea weather the 1997 to 1998 Asian financial crisis may have worn out their welcome as the country struggles to handle a stubborn economic downturn.
But rising nationalism rather than falling bottom lines may have more to do with recent developments, including indications that financial regulators are seeking ways to limit the power of foreign investors, especially in the sensitive banking sector.
The 1997 to 1998 economic meltdown prompted South Korea to undergo dramatic market liberalization and deregulation. Many debt-stricken firms were bailed out with state money and then sold to foreign investors who poured into the country with much-welcome cash.
At the time, foreign capital was desperately courted and played a key role in helping South Korea to ride out the financial storm.
But times have changed. Six years later, foreign investors are no longer welcomed with open arms. They are regarded with suspicion in some quarters and their activities viewed as no longer coinciding with the interests of Korea Inc.
"Foreign investors who once received warm treatment here are now seen differently, with some people pointing to their harmful effects on our market," said Goodmorning Shinhan Securities' Kim Hak-kyun.
Foreigners now control 43 percent of South Korean stocks, up from 40.7 percent a year ago.
"The high ratio of foreign stock ownership means South Korea stocks are relatively cheap," Kim said.
He estimates income foreigners earned from stock dividends this year will rise sharply to an all-time high of four trillion won (US$3.8 billion) from 2.9 trillion won last year.
Responding to concerns about an outflow of national wealth, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has floated the idea of limiting the number of foreigners allowed on the boards of domestic banks.
"We believe banks must be run by experts who have good understanding about our banking system and environment, regardless of their nationality," a senior FSS official said.
The move followed an onslaught on US equity fund Lone Star.
Spec Watch Korea, founded by progressive professors, union activists and civic groups in August to monitor the movement of foreign funds, mobilized 5,500 people to support their push in October to get the government to retract its earlier decision to endorse Lone Star's acquisition of Korea Exchange Bank, the country's fifth largest lender, a year ago.
Foreign investors say the move reflects nationalist anguish in Asia's fourth largest economy that has been grappling with a hangover from a consumer spending binge. Activists say their action is defensive, seeking to keep hot money away from national treasures.
Many analysts and financial officials say foreign capital is positive for the country, making local firms more transparent.
Spec Watch, however, wants strict institutional measures to stop the banking system from falling into the hands of foreign investors.
Spec Watch's coordinator Jeong Jong-nam said his group opposes speculative funds as a "public enemy encroaching on the public interest in the name of the maximization of shareholders' profit."
Its surveillance has focused on US funds which control Korea Exchange Bank, Korea First Bank and Koram Bank as well as Sovereign Asset Management.
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
RSS