Published : Dec. 26, 2018 - 09:41
Loan guarantees among affiliates of South Korea's large business groups fell 9.1 percent in 2018 from a year earlier, the country's corporate watchdog said Wednesday.
The combined corporate debt payment guarantees made among units of eight conglomerates reached 267.8 billion won ($238 million) as of May 1, compared with 294.5 billion won among seven conglomerates during the same period of last year, according to the Fair Trade Commission.
Logos of major South Korean conglomerates (Yonhap)
The eight conglomerates include retail giant Lotte, Nonghyup, Doosan and GS.
In September 2016, a new antitrust law put companies with assets of 10 trillion won or more on the FTC watch list. Those under FTC surveillance are restricted from making equity investments or offering loan guarantees to one another.
The value of loan guarantees among affiliates of large businesses has been on the decline since 1998 when South Korea banned the practice after being hit hard by the 1997 Asian financial crisis. (Yonhap)