27% of 1,500 S. Korean listed firms “on alert” for bankruptcy: Global consulting firm AlixPartners

August 13, 2013 Leave a comment

27 pct of S. Korean listed firms “on alert” for bankruptcy: AlixPartners

2013.08.13

Global consulting firm AlixPartners said Tuesday 27 percent of South Korea’s 1,500 listed companies are in danger of possible insolvency, as they were deemed to be in the “on alert” zone. AlixPartners rated the companies’ risk of insolvency based on their financial data and share prices with its independently developed analysis. 10 percent of the surveyed companies were estimated to be in the “high risk” zone, meaning they are highly likely to file for workout or bankruptcy protection or go bankrupt in the next three quarters, according to AlixPartners. Shipbuilders and marine shippers comprised the biggest share of 75 percent among the companies among the surveyed companies. Financial firms accounted for the second largest share of 35 percent, followed by companies in the culture and leisure sector (17 percent), those in the service sector (15 percent) and those in the construction and real estate sector (10 percent). Credit ratings of Woongjin Holdings, STX Pan Ocean and STX Offshore & Shipbuilding had been evaluated as investment grade right before they filed for court receivership or workout, the consultancy said. AlixPartners stressed such cases underscore the need for an early warning model, like the consulting firm’s insolvency risk assessment. Yung H. Chung, managing director at AlixPartners, said “companies achieve full corporate turnaround if they take steps to address the bankruptcy risk at an earlier stage, but a delayed detection or action significantly lowers the possibility of survival,” The managing director added corporations need to take a “proactive, company-wide response based on objective early warning system.” Yonhap News

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Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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