Listed Firms Perform Poorly

The Korea Stock Exchange said Friday that listed companies whose fiscal years end in June performed poorly in the second half of last year, the firms' fiscal first half.

The exchange analyzed business performance for the second half of 2000 of 44 companies listed either on the Korea Stock Exchange or on the Kosdaq. It said the revenues of 28 firms listed on the main board decreased by 4.9 percent to about 3.25 trillion won ($2.61 billion) from around 3.88 trillion won in the same period of 1999.

Revenues of 22 manufacturing companies listed on the main exchange dropped by 3.9 percent from approximately 3.75 trillion won to 2.95 trillion won, and those of six mutual savings companies fell sharply, by more than 23 percent, to 132.1 billion won.

Although aggregate profits of the 28 companies rebounded from a 185.1 billion won loss to 370 billion won in black ink, only a small number of the companies are actually responsible for the aggregate surplus, the exchange said.

Mutual savings firms did especially badly, all of the 6 companies posting losses.

Their 4.3 billion won of net profit in the second half of1999 turned into a net loss of more than 40 billion won, and revenues also decreased by over 23 percent to 132.2 billion won.

Revenues at Kosdaq firms in the same category went up by 9.2 percent, but net losses amounted to 29.1 billion won.

"It seems that the overall economic slowdown last year pulled down the figures," said an economic researcher from Samsung Securities.

"The prospects for business this year depend on whether the United States economy goes into recession or stays buoyant.

"At least the Korean government is showing its willingness to stimulating the economy, which is a good sign for the companies in the second half of this year," the Samsung researcher added.

by Chung Jeh-won