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To: William T. Katz who wrote (1713)	12/7/1997 6:54:00 PM
From: Sheba	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9256

To All: Another Korean chaebol dropped dead. This is #6 this year, out of the 30 largest conglomerates. Halla supplies auto parts to Hyundai, and this may put additional pressure on Hyundai. The big question is: How many more to follow? This is the link, the article follows. sjmercury.com Posted at 7:17 p.m. PST Saturday, December 6, 1997 Another giant South Korean conglomerate falls New York Times News Service SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea's 12th-largest conglomerate collapsed Saturday, spurring new fears of a wave of corporate bankruptcies under strict financial rules dictated by the International Monetary Fund. Halla Group is the sixth of Korea's 30 largest chaebol -- conglomerates generally controlled by a single family -- to fail this year after borrowing huge amounts of money to finance unsuccessful business expansions. The collapse of the conglomerates has saddled banks with huge amounts of bad debts, crippling the financial system and helping to force Seoul into seeking the IMF bailout announced on Wednesday. Halla fell into bankruptcy after failing to repay about $200 million in debt, according to its creditor banks. Its overall debt totals $5.3 billion. Halla's bankruptcy could in turn hurt the giant Hyundai Group, which lent Halla money. It could also disrupt cripple Korea's automobile industry, because a Halla subsidiary is a major supplier of car parts. Halla's troubles began well before the IMF announced the program to lend South Korea $57 billion or more. But in the past, Halla might have been kept alive by its banks, which would have lent it more money. Banks, under government guidance, readily provided loans to favored industrial conglomerates without worrying too much about the risks. But under terms set by the IMF for the bailout, banks must become healthy to survive. They can no longer afford to lend good money after bad, and in many cases are seeking immediate payments of outstanding loans from high-risk clients. Halla's ran out of money because its banks would not give it fresh loans and called in old ones, Park Sung Suk, vice chairman of Halla Group, said at a news conference. Analysts think that other indebted companies will face bankruptcy under similar conditions. Halla, which is involved in shipbuilding, paper, construction and other industries in addition to auto parts, said six of its subsidiaries were filing for either court receivership or court mediation to reschedule debt payments. The biggest problem is with Halla Engineering and Heavy Industries, one of Korea's leading shipbuilders. Halla spent billions of dollars on a new shipyard, only to face over capacity. Halla was founded by Chung In Yung, the younger brother of Chung Ju Yung, who started the Hyundai Group, one of Korea's two largest chaebol. Hyundai has been lending money to Halla to help keep it going, and there is speculation that Hyundai will rescue Halla or buy some of its subsidiaries. But the state-owned news agency Yonhap Saturday quoted an anonymous Hyundai official as denying this and saying that Hyundai could not afford to do more to help Halla.