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To: tech101 who wrote (159)	4/13/1999 8:57:00 PM
From: tech101	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1056

Goldman Sachs to seek more business in Korea By Yeom Yoon-jeong SEOUL, April 13 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs will tap more business opportunities in South Korea following its decision to invest $500 million in Kookmin Bank , a senior official at the U.S. investment bank said on Tuesday. ''We are looking at other investments in Korea. Definitely we are looking at other things like industrial electronics, and food and beverages,'' Henry Cornell, managing director of Goldman Sachs (Asia), told Reuters in a telephone interview. ''Korea has accomplished more in less than two years than anybody else that I have never seen. That's very impressive,'' Cornell said. ''Korea has a bright future ahead of it and will continue to grow.'' Goldman would not become involved in management of Kookmin Bank or any other Korean company, he said. ''We never do day-to-day management anywhere in the world. It's not our investment strategy,'' he said. ''Boards will discuss the policy and management will implement this.'' Goldman's strategy was to be a basically passive minority shareholder and voice Goldman's opinion through its position on the board. ''It's the typical structure we use globally. So, this is how we would like to invest -- find great companies and great management, and back them,'' Cornell said. Goldman Sachs signed a memorandum of understanding to buy a about 17 percent stake in Kookmin Bank. It is buying $300 million of new Kookmin shares and $200 million in convertible bonds that can be exchanged into shares between three months and six years after their issue. ''Kookmin Bank is a dominant franchise in Korea. It's one of the best-run banks in the region. And management impressed us very much,'' Cornell said. The U.S. investment bank has agreed to pay an 11 percent premium over the average March price of the shares, which worked out at 12,000 won ($9.8) per common Kookmin Bank share. Goldman puts the bank's bookvalue at around 12,300 won, Cornell said. Cornell said the $500 million would come from Goldman Sachs Capital Partners which is the investment fund controlled by Goldman Sachs which makes global investments. Goldman is the largest shareholder of the fund. ''Kookmin now has more than enough capital reserves not just to get through the current economic situation but actually to create shareholder value in the current environment going forward,'' he said. Bolstered by Goldman's investment, Kim Yoo-hwan, executive managing director at Kookmin Bank, told Reuters his bank would post a profit of more than 300 billion won this year from a 73.4 billion won profit last year. ''I'm hopeful they can generate those kinds of profits. As I believe in the management, if they say they can do it, I believe they can do it,'' Cornell said. To become a world-class bank, he said Kookmin Bank needed to beef up its strategy for Internet business, which he believed represented the future growth area of the banking industry. ''We're all going to be living on the Internet in the next century,'' he said. Kookmin has already embarked on a strategic review of what it needed to do in the Internet to service customers properly. ''Goldman Sachs will make Kookmin's Internet business available with our worldwide resources,'' he said. (Conversion $1 equals 1,223 won) biz.yahoo.com