Samsung Life I.P.O Could Settle Long Dispute - DealBook Blog ...
by By DEALBOOK
With the stock market in Seoul rebounding strongly from the global economic downturn, South Korean companies could raise as much as $11 billion this year by selling their shares to the public for the first time, including Samsung Life Insurance, the biggest insurer in the country, Choe Sang-Hun reports in The New York Times.
Samsung Life’s plan for an initial public offering is drawing attention not only because it will most likely be the largest ever in South Korea, but also because it could bring a resolution to a longstanding dispute between the family of Lee Kun-hee, the former chairman of Samsung Electronics, and the creditor banks of Samsung Motors, a failed unit of Samsung , the largest conglomerate in the country.
Its offering, expected before June, is expected to be worth between 3 trillion won and 5 trillion won, or $2.6 billion and $4.4 billion, and probably will eclipse the 3.8 trillion won I.P.O. of Lotte Shopping in 2006, according to Cho Yang-hoon, head of the Corporate Finance Department of Korea Investment & Securities, which is managing the share offer with Goldman Sachs . Samsung Life’s I.P.O. could be worth more than all of the offerings in South Korea in 2009, which amounted to about $3 billion.
After plummeting 41 percent in 2008, the Kospi jumped 42 percent last year amid signs that the South Korean economy was among the first in Asia to pull out of the financial crisis.
“The condition has improved to do I.P.O.’s,” said Kim Sung-ik, head of the I.P.O. team at Shinhan Investment Corp. “Companies can get better prices for their shares as the bourse is improving.”
The stock market upswing has prompted three other South Korean insurers, in addition to Samsung Life, to revive their I.P.O. plans.
Korea Life , the second-largest life insurer in the country, is expected to go public around February...
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