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To: Norrin Radd who wrote (4405)	12/28/1998 10:06:00 AM
From: DJBEINO	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9582

Creditors to Take Punitive Action Against LG 12/28, 18:25 Creditors of LG Semicon yesterday agreed to stop extending fresh loans to the memory chip maker while recalling outstanding loans for its decision to back down from a merger deal with Hyundai Electronics Ind. Co. Some 28 creditor financial institutions of the LG Group and the Hyundai Group met Monday afternoon to work out financial sanctions against LG Semicon. It will be the first time that creditors have ever taken joint action against any unit of the nation's five largest conglomerates. Industry sources said that it will be impossible for LG Semicon to gain access to financial resources if the decision is put into action. Commercial Bank of Korea (CBK) and Korea Exchange Bank (KEB), creditor banks for Hyundai and LG, said creditor banks agreed to stop lending to LG Semicon and to collect outstanding loans. The two banks plan to auction off the properties LG offered as collateral in order to retrieve their loans to the firm if it fails to pay it debts. ''We creditors have decided to take punitive steps against LG Semicon because the company has refused to accept the agreed merger deal with Hyundai,'' said a KEB manager. The LG Group and the Hyundai Group reached an agreement in September to set up a merged semiconductor unit in a business swap to resolve excessive investment and overcapacity. They have since been at odds over who will take over the controlling stake in the merged firm. The dispute came to a head last Thursday when U.S. consultants Arthur D. Little (ADL) chose Hyundai Electronics as the winner of the dispute. ADL recommended that Hyundai be awarded the 70 percent stake in what would become the world's second-largest semiconductor firm while giving the remaining 30 percent to LG. The battle intensified over the weekend as the LG Group revealed Sunday a plan to file a lawsuit against ADL for ''arbitrary and biased evaluations using distorted data.'' Against this backdrop, the government made it clear that punitive sanctions will be imposed on the LG Group. The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) requested that creditor banks take action against LG Semicon in order to convince officials to change their minds. ''LG will have to pay the price if it continues to refuse to accept the ADL's recommendation on managerial rights in a joint semiconductor unit,'' said an FSC official. At the same time, creditors plan to make efforts to avoid a head-on confrontation with the LG Group and open the way for a last-minute settlement of the dispute. Major creditor banks are still expressing hopes that the rival groups will narrow their differences over the management control as soon as possible. LG Semicon was found to have 4 trillion won in long-term debt and foreign currency loans as of June and 480 billion won in short-term debt. The firm had also issued 730 million worth of commercial papers.

To: Norrin Radd who wrote (4405)	12/29/1998 10:27:00 AM
From: DJBEINO	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9582

PC Sales in Fifth Week of Nov. Approach Record High December 28, 1998 (TOKYO) -- Sales of personal computers in the fifth week of November continued to be brisk in Japan, posting a nearly 20 percent increase over a week earlier. PC sales in the fourth week of November had already exceeded the peak figure of the year-end sales campaign a year earlier. According to figures collected by GfK Japan Ltd., PC sales at about 2,000 stores during the fifth week of November (Nov. 30 to Dec. 6, 1998), were up 19.2 percent in volume and increased 18.2 percent in value from the previous week. (See table.) GfK Japan is an information service company that deals with POS data of electric appliance retailers. If this trend continues, sales will likely exceed the highest level since the research started in April 1996. The record high was recorded in the fourth week of March 1997. In comparison with sales in the same week last year (Dec. 1-7, 1997), sales increased 77.9 percent in volume and rose 75.5 percent in value. The average sales price dropped by 2,130 yen from 232,270 yen (US$2,000) to 230,140 yen (US$1,980). Desktop/tower models are selling at an especially brisk pace. And sales of desktop/tower PCs had higher growth rates (compared to the previous week) than the growth rates of notebook PCs for the second straight week. Tower models are popular in this winter's sales campaign as are models with LCD monitors. The sales volume of tower-type PCs was nearly five-fold the level of the same week last year. Customers who need expandability tend to prefer tower models, and those preferring to save space tend to buy thin desktop models. The data GfK Japan releases are from about 2,000 outlets of 41 firms. GfK Japan selected the 41 firms in 1996 and has since been releasing their data. GfK Japan covers a greater number of outlets with combined unit-based sales accounting for about 10 percent of Japan's PC shipments and about 25 percent of total retail sales. nikkeibp.asiabiztech.com