CORRECT: Hanil Bank on CreditWatch Negative: Adds rating table at bottom.TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Standard & Poor's CreditWire 8/5/98-- (Adds rating table at bottom) Following the announced merger of Hanil Bank (Hanil) and Commercial Bank of Korea The Bank of Korea is the national central bank of the Republic of Korea (South Korea). It was established on June 12, 1950 in Seoul. History The Bank of Korea, the central bank of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) was established on June 12, 1950 under the Bank of Korea (CBK CBK Common Body of Knowledge CBK Commerzbank AG CBK Central Bank of Kuwait CBK Commercial Bank of Kuwait CBK Christiania Bank og Kreditkasse CBK Campus Beiaard Kring CBK Cannabis-Bundeskonferenz (Germany) ), Standard & Poor's today placed the long-term ratings of Hanil Bank on CreditWatch with negative implications (see below). Hanil Bank's short-term foreign currency and local currency ratings of single-'C' are affirmed. Both Hanil and CBK exhibit high levels of nonperforming assets Nonperforming asset An asset that is not effectively producing income, such as an overdue loan. nonperforming asset An asset that produces no income. and face mounting losses as corporate bankruptcies have increased substantially in the last year. At mid-1998 Hanil and CBK reported unconsolidated net losses of W820.4 billion and W556.8 billion, respectively. Neither bank meets the regulatory capital-adequacy requirements and, prior to the merger announcement, both were among the banks waiting for the government to approve their "self-rescue" plans. While details of the merger are scant scant adj. scant·er, scant·est 1. Barely sufficient: paid scant attention to the lecture. 2. Falling short of a specific measure: a scant cup of sugar. and the terms have yet to be finalized See finalization. by the banks' merger committee, the transaction is unlikely to benefit either institution unless generous financial support is provided by the Korean government. To avoid disruptions to the financial system, the Korean government is encouraging mergers among the weak nationwide commercial banks and has raised the possibility of tax breaks, the additional purchases of bad loans by the Korea Asset Management Corp., and capital injection for the merged entities. Currently, however, the timing, conditions, or adequacy of any government support package is unclear. Other hurdles facing the merged entity include opposition from the employees of both institutions to future layoffs, which could total 30% of the combined workforce, and the ongoing deterioration de·te·ri·o·ra·tion n. The process or condition of becoming worse. of the operating environment In computing, an operating environment is the environment in which users run programs, whether in a command line interface, such as in MS-DOS or the Unix shell, or in a graphical user interface, such as in the Macintosh operating system. , as the Korean economy further weakens, said Standard & Poor's. -- CreditWire -0-
ISSUER CREDIT RATINGS TO FROM
Hanil Bank
Counterparty credit rtg B+/Watch Neg/C B+/Negative/C
CD B+/Watch Neg B+
REVISED RATINGS
Hanil Bank
Sr unsecd B+/Watch Neg B+
RATINGS AFFIRMED
Hanil Bank/Hanil America Corp.
CP C
CONTACT: Wayne K Gee, New York (1) 212-208-1683
Yoshiyuki Mitsugi, Tokyo (81) 3-3593-8721
For more information on criteria or subscriptions:
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion