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Technology Stocks : Alliance Semiconductor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Norrin Radd who wrote (4838)	4/23/1999 4:35:00 PM
From: DJBEINO	Respond to of 9582

No Subsidy Promised, Requested in Hyundai-LG Chip Merger: MOCIE 04/23 17:45 The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said yesterday that the government has neither promised subsidies nor received requests for subsidies in the merger of the semiconductor units of Hyundai and LG. Deputy Minister Oh Kang-hyun said there have in fact been no discussions of any kind concerning the extension of government subsidies in the takeover of LG Semicon by Hyundai Electronics Industries. ''Improvements in the financial structure of the merged company through the disposal of assets and the injection of foreign equity has to be undertaken by the company itself,'' Oh told reporters. Even if supportive measures are to be provided to the merged company, it will be in the form of a corporate workout, a program which has been sanctioned by the World Bank and should not violate international standards. ''There is a possibility of creditors converting debt into equity or deferring its debts but it will be pursued under workout programs and so it will not be in violation of the rules of the World Trade Organization,'' Oh said. Oh made the comments following announcements yesterday by Hyundai and LG that hey have agreed on the transfer of all shares of LG Semicon held by LG subsidiaries at a price of 2.56 trillion won. Micron Technology of the United States has already filed a complaint with the U.S. Congress, alleging that the Korean government had promised a total of $13 billion in government subsidies for merging the semiconductor firms. ''We have not received any correspondence from the U.S. government concerning the issue and we do not believe that the merger will create any type of trade friction with the United States,'' Oh said. Commenting on receiving approvals for operation by the new company, which is likely to be called Hyundai Semiconductors, in the United States and in the European Union, Oh was similarly optimistic. He said, ''Micron took over the dynamic random access memory business unit of Texas Instruments, which increased its global market share to 14.1 percent (based on 1997 figures) and there were no problems in the approval process.'' The merger of HEI and LG Semicon creates what is the world's largest DRAM producer with a market share of 20.8 percent (data from the International Data Corp.), pushing aside Samsung Electronics which has 20.1 percent. Meanwhile, Oh said a preliminary report on the assets and finances of Samsung Motors should be completed by the end of this month, thus ending all initial work for the restructuring of the nation's nine major industries.