UBS Warburg Apologizes for Report on Samsung Electronics
By Kim Yon-se
Staff Reporter
Lion Britain, vice chairman of UBS Warburg apologized yesterday to the Korean government and financial regulators for the controversial report containing its downgrade investment opinion of Samsung Electronics.
Meeting with Minister of Finance and Economy Jeon Yun-churl and Oh Kap-soo, a vice governor of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), he said, "We apologize for our analyst's dubious practice. And there will be a new analyst taking over the post."
Britain also said they look forward to re-establishing the relationship with Korean corporate and retail customers.
But Jeon told him that the FSS will take care of the case at its will, adding more and more domestic investors have been criticizing some foreign analysts for allegedly issuing glowing remarks and "buy" recommendations on stocks that had already plummeted or were on the verge of steep declines.
An official at a domestic brokerage firm said that Korean investors are still expecting that regulators will impose sanctions against Warburg because they have vowed to tighten supervision of foreign brokerage firms.
Small investors suggested via the FSS bulletin boards regulators further dig into the case in order to protect investors and maintain the integrity of the domestic stock market.
Warburg made about 16-18 percent of trades earlier in the month, according to the Korea Stock Exchange (KSE). Other foreign securities firms in Korea point out the amount is fairly high.
Lee Keun-young, chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission, used to say Korea's financial regulators will take a strong stand, adding, "There will be no room in financial markets, nor in financial intermediaries, for those, including U.S. and Britain-based brokerages, who would put their own interests ahead of those of their customers."
Seemingly in the wake of the dubious practices by UBS Warburg, the FSS has stepped up to turn up the heat on some unethical foreign analysts.
Meanwhile, UBS Warburg was found to have replaced Richard Samuelson with Michael Chin for the head at the Korean Branch May 17.
kys@koreatimes.co.kr
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