It looks like a new owner for Asiana Airlines is getting closer to becoming a reality:
The stock prices of Asiana Airlines Inc. and its affiliates advanced Friday after three consortia joined a final auction to acquire the country’s second-biggest airline.
Asiana shares jumped 9.6 percent to 5,820 won, information and technology solutions provider Asiana IDT Inc. soared by nearly the daily limit of 30 percent to 22,650 won and low-cost carrier Air Busan Co. soared 12 percent to 7,150 won.
The broader KOSPI erased earlier gains to end in negative territory, falling 0.3 percent to 2,137.23.
On Thursday, the Aekyung-Stone Bridge Capital consortium, the consortium of Hyundai Development Co. (HDC) and Mirae Asset Daewoo, and the consortium of the Korea Corporate Governance Improvement (KCGI) and BankerStreet private equity funds submitted their final bids to Credit Suisse, the sole lead manager of the deal.
Aekyung and HDC reportedly presented the acquisition prices of around 1.5 trillion won (US$1.3 billion) and about 2.5 trillion won, respectively, for the country’s second-biggest airline after Korean Air Lines Co.
SKorea's economic growth will not hit the 2% mark. So are you telling me that government spending and boondoggle programs used to artificially inflate employment figures don't necessarily result in the expansion of the private economy? Who would have thunk? https://t.co/VcOCGUb2Pq
SKorea has imposed a 513% tariff on imported rice for years. It's ridiculous.
As a member state of the WTO, SKorea is obligated to import rice even if doesn't want to. In 2014, it had to import up to 409,000 tonnes of rice.https://t.co/CnCL80tYQZ
The South Korean government really wants people to get used to shopping with reusable bags:
Environment Minister Cho Myung-rae (3rd from L) poses with major retailer executives after they signed an agreement on reducing platic waste and encouraging reusable bag usage on Aug. 29, 2019. (Yonhap)
Plastic waste is a nagging headache for Asia’s fourth-largest economy. After banning plastic cups and bags, the government is now moving to ban paper boxes and packaging tapes.
Starting November, supermarkets will stop providing paper boxes and tape that shoppers can use to carry their groceries home, a move meant to encourage shoppers to use reusable shopping bags and reduce the plastic tape and string used for packing boxes, according to the environment ministry.
You can read more at the link, but the supermarkets must love the fact they can increase profits by selling the reusable bags all the while claiming they care about the environment.
Via a reader tip comes news that airline tickets between Korea and Japan are supposedly less than $10:
If you’ve ever wanted to travel between Japan and South Korea, there’s no better time than now — air fares are as low as $8.38.
As a trade spat between the two countries drags on, travel between them is dropping — and so are flight prices.
It costs as little as 10,000 South Korean won ($8.38) to fly one-way from Seoul to Fukuoka on budget airline Eastar Jet right now, and only 1,000 Japanese yen ($9.35) the other way.
This is excluding tax and fuel surcharges — but still, added up, the prices are far lower than normal. The Eastar flight from Fukuoka to Seoul costs 7,590 yen ($71) with all the additional fees.
You can read more at the link, but I looked up the ticket prices on the Eastar website for flights between Seoul and Fukuoka and this is what I got:
It is accurate that Eastar is offering 10,000 won tickets, but the article fails to mention you must have membership with Eastar Airlines and that the ticket does not include the ability to check in bags.
For people with this cheap ticket who want to bring a bag it will cost 10,000 won per kilogram. If someone brings a 10 kilogram check in bag would add 100,000 won to the ticket, so that is where the airline will be making up costs.
This is an interesting idea considering how popular electric scooters are becoming:
A model demonstrates the electric scooter to be mounted in Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors vehicles in the future. [HYUNDAI MOTOR]
Hyundai Motor Group on Tuesday unveiled an electric scooter that can be mounted inside a vehicle and charged with the electricity generated while driving.
The product is an upgrade to a concept model Hyundai Motor first introduced in 2017.
The group said it is considering including electric scooters as an upgrade option in newly launched cars from Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors from 2021 so drivers can conveniently continue to their destination after parking their car.
The scooter, according to Hyundai, will be charged automatically when mounted in a dedicated space in the vehicle through electricity generated from driving. When drivers reach parking lots, they can take out the scooter and continue on to their final destination.
I wonder if the Moon administration is trying to use the threat of these sanctions as way to pressure the Trump administration to help resolve the current trade dispute with Japan?:
South Korea is seeking an annual $350 million in trade sanctions against the United States in an Obama-era dispute over tariffs on steel pipes, it said in a World Trade Organization (WTO) filing published on Tuesday.
South Korea went to the WTO in 2014 to challenge U.S. tariffs levied on oil country tubular goods (OCTG), a type of steel piping used in the energy industry.
Washington said its tariffs aimed to stop South Korea exporting the product at unfairly cheap prices. After South Korea won a partial victory at the WTO, the United States had until July 12 to comply with that ruling.
South Korea said the United States had failed to do so and it was seeking sanctions equal to the level of trade harm done.
“Based on available data, this level is estimated at $350 million annually. This amount will be adjusted by applying the annual growth rate of the OCTG market of the United States,” it said in the sanctions request published by the WTO.
South Korea plans to impose the sanctions by putting tariffs on certain types of U.S. goods, which it said it would announce at a later date.
If anyone has any spare cash lying around you could buy Asiana Airlines this week:
Asiana Airlines is expected to be up for sale as early as Thursday.
Kumho Industrial, Asiana’s biggest shareholder, and the airline’s credit holders plan to start the sale process on Thursday or Friday. They are looking to find a buyer and sign a main contract by the end of this year.
Market observers presume it will take one trillion won to two-point-five trillion won to buy South Korea’s second largest airline. Some local conglomerates are being mentioned as potential bidders, including SK, Hanwha, CJ and Aekyung.
Earlier this year, the Asiana’s creditors led by the state-owned Korea Development Bank(KDB) decided to provide one-point-73 trillion won in financial assistance to help normalize the cash-strapped airline, setting a goal to sell it by year-end.
South Korea just posted the longest streak of unemployment at 4% or above in almost 20 years. This raises worries higher unemployment may be a new normal for the country that is facing headwinds in exports worldwide. pic.twitter.com/u09oiYAuVe
It seems to me that having a lower minimum wage for foreign workers will increase unemployment because small business owners will look for foreigners to hire instead of Koreans:
Hwang Kyo-ahn, chairman of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, speaks during a meeting with local business owners at the Busan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Busan, Wednesday. Yonhap
Korea’s opposition party leader has vowed to introduce a “different” minimum wage system for foreign workers.
Hwang Kyo-ahn, chairman of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP), said Wednesday he will press ahead with revising related laws to lighten small business owners’ financial burden. He made the pledge at a meeting with employers in Busan.
Given “the different degrees of their contribution to Korea,” he said, it is “not fair” to set the same minimum wage for Korean and foreign workers.
“Koreans contribute more to the country, for example, by paying more in taxes,” Hwang said. “Our party will revise related laws to improve the situation (for employers).”
His remarks come amid complaints that steep minimum wage hikes over the past two years have pushed many small businesses to the edge.
But Article 6 of the Labor Standards Act stipulates that an employer cannot discriminate against workers on the basis of gender, nationality, religion and social status.
