Korean Financial Market News for November 17, 2023

1. It appears that the number of lenders in real estate project financing businesses who are trying to collect loans without extending the maturity of bridge loans or converting to main PF is increasing. Because they are very wary of the increase in risk exposure from PF loans, the movement to withdraw funds is accelerating. However, concerns are being raised about the fact that lenders are focusing on 'normal' businesses where recovery is relatively easy to recover in order to prove liquidity. https://www.investchosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2023/11/16/2023111680247.html
2. South Korea's Shinhan Investment & Securities announced its Hong Kong branch participated as the lead manager in the merger of Vistra and Tricor in Hong Kong, providing a 100-billion-won ($76.8 million) priority acquisition finance and completing the sell-down (resale after acquisition) on Wednesday. https://www.kedglobal.com/alternative-investments/newsView/ked202311150012
3. Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering succeeded in winning an order for an ethane carrier. The company announced on the 17th that it recently signed a contract to build two 98,000? ultra-large ethane carriers with an Asian shipping company. The total contract amount is $340 million. The ethane carrier ordered this time has a price of $170 million per ship, which is the highest price for a large ethane carrier. https://www.fntimes.com/html/view.php?ud=20231117104820598099ebb03838_18
4. Korean non-performing loan investment companies are raising investment resources through paid-in capital increase and bond issuance. As the NPL market is expected to expand, the purpose is to preemptively raise funds to purchase rapidly increasing NPLs. According to the Financial Supervisory Service, the total number of new bank NPLs in Korea during the second quarter of this year was 4 trillion won. It increased by about 1 trillion won compared to the previous quarter. https://www.investchosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2023/11/16/2023111680250.html
5. As Korea's COFIX, which is the benchmark for floating rate home mortgage interest rates in the banking sector, has risen for two consecutive months, major commercial banks are also raising interest rates on variable rate home loans. KB Kookmin Bank, Korea's largest bank, is raising the upper limit of the home mortgage loan interest rate based on the new amount handled from 5.98% to 6.13%. https://www.fntimes.com/html/view.php?ud=202311151543089997ee0209bd21_18
6. Hyundai Motor Company will begin selling vehicles online through Amazon starting next year. Hyundai Motor Company and Amazon announced an extensive and strategic partnership to provide innovative new experiences to customers at the 2023 LA Auto Show held at the LA Convention Center on the 16th. The partnership included various cooperation such as ▲online car sales on Amazon ▲selecting Amazon Web Services as the preferred cloud provider ▲installing Amazon's artificial intelligence assistant 'Alexa' in new Hyundai vehicles in the future. https://dealsite.co.kr/articles/113273
7. Samsung C&T is expected to repay 170 billion won worth of corporate bonds maturing this month in cash. Previously, Samsung SDI also repaid 220 billion won in corporate bonds due in September in cash, showing the trend of Samsung Group's major issuers continuing to 'keep their distance' from the corporate bond market. An IB industry official said, "Most affiliates with excellent credit ratings have achieved good performance. So there is no need to issue corporate bonds." https://dealsite.co.kr/articles/113202
8. Negotiations between Korea's SK Square and Singaporean e-commerce company Qoo10 to acquire the Korean online shopping mall 11th Street have finally collapsed. According to the Korean investment industry on the 16th, SK Square informed Q10 of its intention to suspend trading. Negotiations were said to be accelerating, with SK suggesting a plan to merge 11st and Q11 and jointly manage Q11, but it is said that they were unable to reach an agreement on detailed conditions during the due diligence process. https://www.investchosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2023/11/16/2023111680220.html
9. According to Kim Dong-won, an analyst at KB Securities, Samsung Electronics' operating profit in the fourth quarter of this year is expected to be 3.5 trillion won, a 43% increase from the third quarter and in line with the consensus (average market forecast). The background is that the DRAM business, which has been in deficit for the past 9 months, is expected to turn into a surplus. Analyst Kim said, “In the future, the focus of the AI memory market is expected to expand from generative AI-related HBM to LLW (Low Latency Wide) DRAM specialized for high-performance, low-power on-device AI. “Samsung Electronics is expected to dominate the device AI market as it will begin mass production of LLW DRAM with increased bandwidth and transmission speed compared to ‘LPDDR’, a low-power specialized product, from the fourth quarter of next year,” he added. https://v.daum.net/v/20231117115403675
10. The International Monetary Fund forecast Korea's inflation rate this year to be 3.6%, revising upward from the previous forecast. In order to stabilize prices, it was recommended that the current high interest rate stance be maintained for a considerable period of time and that hasty monetary policy easing should be avoided. https://v.daum.net/v/20231117114805463

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