Memo for Chairman Welch: Have I Got a Deal for You!

If General Electric Co. of the United States sold just 14 percent of its shares, it could gain control of all the companies listed on Seoul's stock market except financial institutions, according to the Korea Stock Exchange on Wednesday. Why GE would want to do so is unclear, but an exchange spokesman conceded that someone looking at the data might conclude that Korean stocks are undervalued.

The exchange said Wednesday that a total of 622 listed firms, not including financial firms, had a combined market capitalization of 164.37 trillion won ($131.4 billion) as of Tuesday, down 30.7 percent from a year earlier. Therefore, the exchange said, it would take 82.19 trillion won to seize management control of all of them by acquiring 50-percent plus one share of each company.

The market value of General Electric, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, stood at 593.4 trillion won as of Tuesday.

Samsung Electronics Co. would be the most expensive company to take over, costing 14.3 trillion won, followed by Korea Telecom Corp. (10.15 trillion won) and SK Telecom Co. (9.27 trillion won).

by Kim Hyun-chul