15 Companies Added to List of Most Indebted

Fifteen corporate names have been added to the list of Korea's most heavily-indebted conglomerates.

Subsidiaries of the 60 companies on the updated list, released Monday by the Financial Supervisory Service, must sign agreements with their creditor banks to improve their balance sheets and governance structure.

As of the end of last year, the 60 groups had combined debts of 111.8 trillion won ($86.2 billion), down 9.9 percent from the previous year, the financial watchdog said.

Joining the list were Hyundai Motor, Pohang, Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co., Daewoo International, Daewoo Telecom, Orion Electric Co., Hyundai Development Co., Korea Thrunet Co., Hanaro Telecom Inc., Korea Line Corp., Daewoo Heavy Industries & Machinery, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Hyundai Department Store Co., Iljin Corp. and KISWIRE.

The most heavily-indebted conglomerate on the list was Hyundai Group, with groupwide debts of 15.3 trillion won, followed by LG Group.

Despite general debt reduction for the firms, the LG and SK groups saw their debts surge. LG's debt load was 11.5 trillion won at the end of last year, up 26 percent from the year before, while SK's debt rose 24 percent to 9.8 trillion won. By contrast, Samsung Group cut its debt by 21.7 percent to 10 trillion won.

by Kim Hyun-chul