Jeonbokjuk (rice porridge with abalone)

Jeonbokjuk (Institute of Traditional Korean Food)

Jeonbokjuk is a delicacy made of sliced abalone and non-glutinous rice. It has a sweet taste, pleasant aroma and is rich in nutrients. It was served as a noble dish in Joseon’s royal courts. Blue jeonbokjuk is a special delicacy cooked with abalone entrails. It is blue in color and has a bitter taste.

Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups non-glutinous rice

- 2 abalone

- 1 tbsp sesame oil

- 8 cups water

- 1 tsp clear soy sauce

- 1/2 tsp salt

1. Wash the rice, soak in water for 2 hours, drain for 10 min.

2. Wash and clean the abalone with brush, take out the flesh by spoon, remove the entrails and slice.

3. Preheat the pot and oil with sesame oil, stir-fry rice for 1 min. on medium heat, add abalone, stir-fry together for 2 min.

4. Add water, boil for 6 min. on high heat. Then lower the heat to medium, cover and boil for another 30 min., stirring occasionally.

5. When the porridge is well-done, season with clear soy sauce and salt, and bring to a boil.

Tips
Cooking abalone porridge with abalone entrails, blue in color, may be an another choice.

You could use minced abalone instead of sliced abalone.

(Adapted from the Institute of Traditional Korean Food)

Oi-sobagi (stuffed cucumber kimchi)

Oi-sobagi. (Institute of Traditional Korean Food)

Oi-sobagi is a type of kimchi made with slightly fermented cucumbers that have been slit and stuffed with seasoned Korean leeks. Oi-sobagi may also be served without fermenting.

Ingredients
● 3 ea cucumber (white), 30 g coarse salt

● saltwater: 380 g water, 20 g coarse salt

● 50 g small wild leaks

● 1 tbsp salted shrimp

● seasoning : 2 tbsp minced green onion, 1 tbsp minced garlic, 1 tsp minced ginger, 2 tbsp ground red pepper, 1 tsp salt

● stuffed cucumber liquid : 3 tbsp water, 1/4 tsp salt

1. Clean the cucumber by rubbing with salt and wash, cut into 6 cm-long pieces, make 3-4 knife slits lengthways, leaving 1 cm at the bottom.

2. Marinate cucumber in salt water for 2 hours, drain for 30 minutes.

3. Trim and wash small wild leaks, slice finely.

4. Mince the salted shrimps.

5. Mix the small wild leaks, salted shrimps and seasoning sauce with hands to make the stuffing, and fill the slits in the cucumber with it.

6. Put the stuffed cucumber into a jar. Mix the stuffed cucumber liquid, pour it into the jar and press the cucumber down.

Tips
Young, straight cucumber is good for this Kimchi.

(Adapted from the Institute of Traditional Korean Food)

Moody’s affirms top rating on France

Pedestrians walk past the Moody’s Investors Service Inc. logo displayed outside of the company’s headquarters in New York. (Bloomberg)

PARIS (AFP) ― International ratings agency Moody’s affirmed its top “Aaa” rating on France Thursday but said it would watch closely the policies of new President Francois Hollande who favors growth above austerity.

Moody’s said it maintained France’s top rating but kept the outlook at “Negative,” noting that while Hollande insists growth must come first, he has not made clear how he will implement his campaign pledges at a time of great eurozone strains.

The agency, one of the top three world credit assessors, said among France’s strengths were a large, diversified economy; robust institutions and competent administration; strong social cohesion; sound and innovative debt management and important reforms, especially in the public sector and the pension system.

On the negative side, the country faced high government expenditure; a relatively large government deficit and debt plus its exposure to potential new contingent liabilities arising from a further deterioration in the eurozone debt crisis.

It noted that socialist Hollande won office earlier this month on a platform of growth first above austerity but “the path to a robust economic recovery is not yet clear and remains an uncertain variable in France’s debt equation.”

Hollande’s medium-term fiscal consolidation and economic growth objectives are quite similar to those of former president Nicolas Sarkozy, Moody’s said, with the new president’s program requiring some 100 billion euros in savings or five percent of Gross Domestic Product.

The target of balancing the accounts by 2017 is “unprecedented in France and reflects the government’s challenge to catch up and ensure the medium- and long-term sustainability of public finances.”

“It is not clear yet how precisely this reduction in the growth rate of public spending is going to be achieved, given that the new administration is aiming to stabilize the size of France’s public sector, in contrast to the outgoing government which targeted reductions in the number of civil servants.”

Hollande’s “strong commitment to the achievement of sustainable public finances is credit-positive (but) we believe that the overall level of uncertainty regarding the government’s ability to achieve its fiscal consolidation and growth targets remains unchanged.”

Moody’s said it expected the picture to become clearer in the second half of the year.

In January, Standard and Poor’s cut its top “AAA” rating on France by one notch to “AA+,” with a negative outlook, citing the strains caused by the eurozone debt crisis.

HP to cut 27,000 jobs to save up to $3.5 billion annually

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― Hewlett-Packard Co. is cutting 27,000 jobs in an effort to recover from management missteps that hobbled the Silicon Valley pioneer as its rivals raced ahead with more innovative products and services.

The streamlining announced Wednesday represents HP’s largest payroll purge in its 73-year history. The reductions will affect about 8 percent of HP’s nearly 350,000 employees by the time the overhaul is completed in October 2014.

The cuts come eight months after HP hired Meg Whitman as CEO to turn the company around.

HP hopes to avoid as many layoffs as possible by offering early retirement packages.

The company expects to save $3 billion to $3.5 billion annually from the job cuts and other austerity measures.

Word of the mass layoff had leaked out in media reports late last week, so the news didn’t come as a surprise.

Nevertheless, the sobering details overshadowed the release of HP’s latest quarterly results. Although HP’s earnings and revenue declined from a year ago, the numbers were better than analysts had projected. HP also delivered another pleasant surprise by offering a forecast that raised hopes that HP may be poised to bounce back.

“While I wouldn’t say we have turned the corner, we are making real progress,” Whitman told analysts during a conference call.

Echoing comments she made three months ago, Whitman cautioned that “turning HP around is going to be a lot of hard work. It’s going to take time. But we know what needs to be done.”

Investors were pleased, although it wasn’t clear whether their glee had more to do with the cost-cutting or the company’s performance during its fiscal second quarter, which ended in April.

HP shares surged $1.97, or more than 9 percent, to $23.05 in Wednesday’s extended trading. That’s still about half their value before HP parted ways with Mark Hurd, a cost-costing specialist who stepped down in 2010 amid a scandal revolving around the nature of his relationship with a former actress who worked as an HP contractor. An investigation into it uncovered inaccurate expense reports.

The current troubles at HP have been traced both to Hurd, who cut research and development to boost profits, and his successor, Leo Apotheker, who didn’t respond to the threat posed by a shift to computing on smartphones and tablets.

Whitman’s plan calls for less bureaucracy so the company can respond more quickly to customer needs. She also wants to boost research and development to spur more innovation.

HP, which is based in Palo Alto, California, has been struggling to sell more personal computers and printers, partly because they aren’t needed as much now that people are spending so much time surfing the Web on phones and tablets such as Apple Inc.’s iPad. The company’s efforts to sell more business software and consulting services have been stymied by competition from the likes of IBM Corp. and Oracle Corp.

“Work force reductions are never easy,” Whitman said Wednesday. “They adversely impact people’s lives, but in this case, they are absolutely critical to the long-term health of the company. Our goal is simple: a better outcome for the customers at reduced cost for HP.”

Whitman plans to funnel most of the savings from the job cuts into product development. Some of the extra cash will go toward boosting HP’s earnings, too.

HP’s workforce has undergone several other reorganizations during the past decade. Two of the biggest occurred during Hurd’s regime. HP announced 14,500 job cuts in 2005 in one of his first big acts as CEO. HP also announced 24,600 cuts in 2008 after buying technology consulting service EDS for $13.9 billion.

HP did not say where the latest cuts would come from. HP is combining its printers and PCs division, which could reduce some overhead.

As part of the latest crackdown, Whitman is changing the leadership at HP’s recently acquired Autonomy division, which makes software that finds and analyzes data within companies and government agencies.

Bill Veghte, HP’s chief strategy officer, is replacing Autonomy founder Mike Lynch in an effort to boost the division’s financial performance. The shake-up is likely to amplify investor questions about whether HP blundered last year when it paid $11 billion to buy Autonomy. That deal was announced in August by Apotheker, just a month before he was fired.

Whitman told analysts she still believes the Autonomy acquisition was smart.

The company earned $1.6 billion, or 80 cent per share, in the February-April quarter. That represented a 31 percent decline from $2.3 billion, or $1.05 per share, at the same time last year.

If not for several items unrelated to HP’s ongoing business, the company said it would have earned 98 cents per share. That figure topped the average estimate of 91 cents per share among analysts surveyed by FactSet.

Revenue fell 3 percent from last year to $30.7 billion. That was about $800 million above analyst projections.

To pay for severance and other restructuring costs, HP expects to take a pre-tax charge of about $1.7 billion in the current fiscal year, which ends in October. About $1 billon of those charges will come in the current quarter ending in July. HP expects to take charges of an additional $1.8 billion through fiscal 2014.

The company also expects to register a charge of $1.2 billion to account for the declining value of the Compaq computer brand. HP bought Compaq a decade ago in a deal that many shareholders, including the son of a company founder William Hewlett, tried to block.

The ‘world’s nicest prison’ unveiled

CNN reported that it recently took a look at what some says “the world’s nicest prison” in Norway where neither the prisoners nor the guards wear uniforms.

Bastoy Prison, located on a one-square-mile island in southern Norway, is dotted with pine trees, rocky coasts, rustic farms and private cottages.

The inmates have keys to their own rooms, the broadcaster reported.

"It's still prison," one inmate, "Luke," 23, was quoted. "In your mind, you are locked (up)."

During the summer, the island's 115 prisoners can sunbathe on the beachfront, go fishing, play tennis or take a relaxing sauna, CNN said.

Bastoy Prison in Norway (CNN)

Most of the inmates have been sentenced for serious crimes, including murder and rape, it said.

Despite the luxury, Bastoy has a lower level of recidivism (16 percent) than other prisons in the country.

(From news reports)

Lawsuits mount over Facebook IPO debacle

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― Trial lawyers smelled blood Wednesday as furious investors began filing suits over losses on Facebook’s disastrous $16 billion IPO, with billions of dollars possibly at stake in coming litigation.

More than a half-dozen law firms specializing in investor complaints said they were launching class action suits against the social networking giant and its underwriters.

The suits alleged that Facebook, and Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and other big Wall Street banks that distributed the shares withheld from smaller investors crucial forecasts that pointed to weaker growth for Facebook, while sharing the information with big institutional clients.

A separate lawsuit against the Nasdaq exchange said its massive technical problems on the first day of Facebook trade on Friday also resulted in losses to investors.

Pre-market prices for Nasdaq stock and Facebook stock are shown Wednesday at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York. (AP-Yonhap News)

All told the claims could come to billions: more than $15 billion has been wiped from the company’s value since the initial public offering gave it a market capitalization of $104 billion.

Facebook vehemently defended itself in its first public comment since the IPO, as the first suit, from the Brian Roffe Profit Sharing Plan and two other investors, was lodged in the New York District Court.

“We believe the lawsuit is without merit and will defend ourselves vigorously,” a Facebook spokesperson said.

The class-action suits all said that U.S. securities laws were violated when the company and its main IPO bankers allegedly provided information to large clients but not others.

They “failed to disclose that during the IPO roadshow, the lead underwriters ... cut their earnings forecasts and that news of the estimate cut was passed on only to a handful of large investor clients, not to the public,” said law firm Glancy Binkow & Goldberg.

On the same grounds the Massachusetts state government issued a subpoena for the lead underwriter, Morgan Stanley, over how it shared information ahead of the massive share sale.

Morgan Stanley is being blamed for cutting its own internal Facebook earnings forecasts even while supporting the company in increasing the size of the IPO by 25 percent to 421 million shares, and raising the issue price sharply to $38 a share.

Investors had hoped to turn quick and easy profits on the shares when they hit the market Friday, given the lengthy buildup and how previous IPOs by tech giants like Google and LinkedIn rocketed upward.

But the launch flopped, the price barely staying up above the $38 level in the first day of trade and then plunging 18 percent over the next two sessions.

The price rebounded slightly in trade Wednesday, climbing 3.2 percent to $32.00, but remained well below the $38 that the initial IPO investors paid.

The episode cast a dark cloud over what was supposed to be the brightest market opportunity for investors in years and over a company with nearly one billion users but which still faces questions on whether it cares what investors think.

“The Facebook debacle is coming off as an insult to individual investors.

It looks like the worst of Wall Street hype with a dose of chicanery to boot,” said Dick Green at Briefing.com.

“Insiders certainly look like the winners and individual investors the losers.”

On Tuesday Morgan Stanley insisted it followed all appropriate procedures in the IPO, including disseminating the update Facebook filing, the “S1,” to all of the company’s institutional and retail investors.

“In response to the information about business trends, a significant number of research analysts in the syndicate who were participating in investor education reduced their earnings views to reflect their estimate of the impact of the new information,” the banks said in a statement.

As the lawyers took action in the courts, major retail brokers said they were trying to sort out investor complaints of losses due to Nasdaq’s inability Friday to process trading orders correctly.

“We understand that Nasdaq is working with federal regulators to determine what, if any, accommodation might be made,” Fidelity, the giant retail broker, told its clients, hinting that some compensation for losses might be available.

Regulators were also reported examining what happened with the underwriters, and the banking committee of the U.S. Senate was also informally gathering information on the case.

“If true, the allegations are a matter of regulatory concern to FINRA and the SEC,” Rick Ketchum, the chief executive of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, said in a statement.

Ahn lays groundwork for presidential bid

Appoints former Roh aide as spokesperson


Software-mogul-turned-professor Ahn Cheol-soo appeared to be preparing to enter the presidential race by naming Yoo Min-young, a former presidential press secretary, as his spokesman.

Ahn, 50, has recently been polling just behind Saenuri Party’s presidential hopeful Park Geun-hye in various popularity polls of potential presidential candidates.

Ahn Cheol-soo

The founder of anti-virus software firm AhnLab emerged on the political scene before the Seoul mayoral by-election in October when his support helped Park Won-soon secure a smooth win against ruling party candidate Na Kyung-won.

Although Ahn has never clarified his intentions, he has since been considered a potential presidential candidate.

“The appointment of Yoo as his spokesman means it may be imminent for Ahn to make his presidential bid official,” an inside source said.

Yoo, president of public relations firm Peak 15, confirmed on Friday he has been tapped to act as Ahn’s spokesman.

Yoo was a press secretary for former President Roh Moo-hyun during the time when Moon Jae-in, another opposition presidential hopeful, was a chief secretary for civil affairs and chief of staff. Yoo is said to enjoy a wide network of pro-Roh figures.

Yoo entered politics as a secretary to the late Kim Geun-tae, a dissident-turned-lawmaker, and helped Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon in his campaign in October. Yoo is also an adjunct professor at Hallym University in Chuncheon.

Ahn, a former medical doctor and currently a dean of the Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology at Seoul National University, enjoys popularity among younger voters, largely attributed to his clean image.

Ahn is scheduled to make a public appearance on Wednesday, when he will deliver a speech on pending political and social issues under the title “What we Need Now” at Pusan National University.

Moon has been seeking ways to align with Ahn to go up against Park Geun-hye.

After the April 11 general election, Moon suggested creating a “joint administration” with Ahn in a media interview in a format similar to the alliance between President Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-pil in the 1997 presidential election, upon which one became president and the other prime minister.

Ahn is set to launch a charity foundation next month headed by former lawmaker Park Young-sook, who had close ties with Kim Dae-jung.

By Lee Joo-hee (jhl@heraldm.com)

Park sues DUP leader over scandal

Park sues DUP leader over scandal

Park Geun-hye By Chung Hee-hyung Park Geun-hye, the Saenuri Party’s leading presidential contender, sued Rep. Park Jie-won, interim head of the opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) for libel, Tuesday. The former claimed the DUP floor leader falsely linked her with a lobbyist who had worked for a suspended savings bank. Both sides have been exchanging harsh words over Park Geun-hye’s alleged involvement in a massive bribery case since last week. Park Jie-won, who served as chief aide to former President Kim Dae-jung, wields considerable influence among lawmakers hailing from the southwestern Jeolla Province, considered the home turf of the DUP. Park Jie-won The war of words began when the opposition leader alleged Park Geun-hye met lobbyist Park Tae-gyu on several occasions. The lobbyist was jailed for accepting money from the Busan Savings Bank in exchange for lobbying ranking government officials to help the bank evade regulatory sanctions. “The Prosecutors’ Office should investigate whether their meeting had anything to do with the savings bank’s bribery case,” said Park Jie-won last week, indicating a possible connection between the Saenuri Party frontrunner and the lobbyist. Park Geun-hye responded by filing a lawsuit four days later. “Politicians are supposed to only tell the truth, but repeated false statements made by my opponents compelled me take necessary measures.” “Normally, she does not try to fend off every accusation made against her. It’s not her style. But she decided to take a different approach this time to cope with the downright false statement,” said a Saenuri Party official Tuesday. In unusually strong words, she urged the prosecution to “root out negative political campaigns through extensive investigation.” Park Geun-hye added that she did not even know who the lobbyist was, let alone having met him. The DUP’s Park responded in a light manner. He said he was “delighted” by her remarks and added that “an interesting situation might develop.” He then hinted at what that might be. “Let’s wait and see, and everyone should eventually know who is indeed telling the truth,” said Park Jie-won at the DUP’s floor meeting on Tuesday. In a radio interview on Wednesday, he backed the “truth” of his allegations by claiming he had substantial evidence proving Park Geun-hye’s involvement in the scandal. Asked who provided the information of her alleged connection to the lobbyist, the DUP leader answered that he obtained it from “reliable third parties” who were in a position to judge its authenticity. “Park may think the prosecution is on her side, but we have convincing testimonies and even voice recordings,” the floor leader said. “If the allegations turn out to be true, they would raise very serious doubts about her credibility.” The failure of the Busan Savings Bank, caused by lax lending standards and investments in questionable financial derivatives, sparked a massive bank run last summer which eventually led to its suspension. Customers were forced to watch their deposits disappear overnight when the bank was unable to meet the demands for withdrawals. The prosecution’s investigation found that the bank had more than seven trillion won ($6.2 billion) in non-performing loans. Financial regulators, who were supposed to make sure that no bank lent too much money relative to its deposits, looked the other way when some of its officials were bribed. To cover up this mess, and to prevent the bank from being suspended, senior bank officials decided on an all-out lobbying drive. Several high-ranking government and bank officials have been imprisoned since, but Park Geun-hye herself had never been implicated until the DUP floor leader made his first claim over her possible connection to the scandal last week. The high-profile case was a perfect chance for Park Jie-won to prove that his nickname “Sniper” is not a misnomer. As a seasoned politician, he has earned the nickname by singling out his opponents for attack, ruining political careers on more than one occasion. He even once received a phone call from a justice ministry official who begged him “not to be too hard” on an attorney general candidate scheduled for a hearing at the National Assembly. The candidate failed to receive parliamentary approval in any case. The writer is a Korea Times intern.

Japanese forecasts major volcanic eruptions in N. Korea

Japanese forecasts major volcanic eruptions in N. Korea

CHIBA, Japan (Yonhap) -- A volcanic eruption of North Korea's Mount Paektu could be similar to the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in the United States, a Japanese expert said, after he claimed last week such an explosion was highly probable. Mount St. Helens erupted in Washington State in May 1980 following a large earthquake, killing 57 people in the deadliest volcanic event in U.S. history. The eruption was rated as 5 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI). The VEI scale ranges from 0 to 8 with an increase of 1 index point indicating an eruption 10 times more powerful. Eruptions designated as having a VEI of 5 or higher are considered "very large" explosive events, and occur worldwide on an average of only about once every two decades, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, a scientific agency of the U.S. government. Hiromitsu Taniguchi, a professor emeritus at Tohoku University and a renowned volcanologist, said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency Wednesday that an eruption of Mount Paektu could reach 4 or 5 on the VEI, if it occurs. He dismissed concerns a possible nuclear test by North Korea could trigger an eruption of the mountain near the border with China, saying a possible nuclear test is unlikely to affect the activity of underground magma. Last week, Taniguchi claimed in the Japanese media there is a 99 percent chance the highest peak on the Korean Peninsula would erupt in the next two decades due to the impact of the 2011 massive earthquake in Japan. However, Lee youn-soo, a volcanologist of the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, said it is difficult to predict the timing of any such eruption due to scarce observation data. Experts outside the secretive communist country have warned since last year that the 2,744-meter Mount Paektu may still have an active core, citing topographical signs and satellite images. Last year, experts of the two Koreas held talks on potential volcanic activity on Mount Paektu at the North's request, following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The two sides have since failed to hold further talks or conduct an on-site survey of Mount Paektu, which last erupted in 1903.

Korea's household credit dips in first quarter

Korea's household credit dips in first quarter

Korea's household credit dipped in the first quarter due to a drop in demand for fresh loans and people cutting back on spending, the central bank said Thursday. Household credit totaled 911.4 trillion won ($774.5 billion) as of the end of March, down 500 billion won from a record high of 911.9 trillion won tallied three months earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). Compared with a year earlier, household credit rose 7 percent in the cited period, marking the third quarter in a row that numbers moved up, despite efforts by the country's financial regulator to curb the household debt. Household credit refers to credit purchases and loans for households extended by financial institutions, including commercial lenders and mutual savings banks. "The sluggish property market that reduced demand for loans and people buying fewer products with their credit cards contributed to the modest decrease," the central bank said. Lending by all depository institutions reached 637.1 trillion won at the end of March, down 2.5 trillion won from three months earlier. The growth rate of household lending at all commercial banks contracted 2.7 trillion won to 453.1 trillion won, while borrowing extended by non-bank institutions rose 200 billion won to 184.0 trillion won during the three months from the last quarter in 2011. Loans extended to households by other financial corporations such as insurance companies and credit financial companies rose 3.1 trillion won to 220.6 trillion won. Credit purchases stood at 53.6 trillion won, down 1.2 trillion won from the fourth quarter. Heavy indebtedness of households is a source of concern for South Korean policymakers because excessive debt affects purchasing power at a time when the country is becoming more reliant on private spending to fuel growth. The domestic market has gained importance because sluggish global growth is hurting exports. The BOK froze the key interest rate at 3.25 percent for an 11th straight month in May on challenges posed by persistent European debt concerns and the weak pace of domestic economic growth. (Yonhap)

Hana Financial hit by savings bank scandal

Hana Financial hit by savings bank scandal

Kim Seung-yu, former Hana Financial Group Chairman Ex-head to be questioned over kickbacks allegations By Kim Jae-won Prosecutors raided the main office of Hana Capital in southern Seoul, Wednesday, to find out whether former Hana Financial Group Chairman Kim Seung-yu had pressured the subsidiary to participate in a capital increase for the troubled Mirae Savings Bank. The prosecution said it wasn’t ruling out summoning the former chairman, and Kim Jong-jun, CEO of Hana Bank, the flagship banking unit of the nation’s third-largest financial group, for questioning over their roles in a 14.5 billion won investment by Hana Capital into Mirae in September last year. The two were suspected of approving Mirae Chairman Kim Chan-kyung’s request, though the company was not qualified to receive any money. The prosecution declined to reveal details of the ongoing investigation. The Mirae chairman, now under arrest, told prosecutors about the former Hana chairman’s involvement. Kim Seung-yu met Kim Chang-kyung through his college friend Cheon Shin-il, the head of Sejoong Namo, who went to Korea University, President Lee Myung-bak’s alma mater. A focus of the questioning of the former Hana chairman is whether he took bribes; something Kim denied in an interview with an Internet portal. The money Hana Capital invested in Mirae was backed by five paintings owned by the company, stocks of Chairman Kim Chan-kyung, his apartment in Apgujeong-dong in southern Seoul and the main office of Mirae in Secho-dong, southern Seoul as collateral. However, experts say the real estate has no real value as they have already been seized by other creditors. They also argue that it is not common practice for paintings to be used as collateral because their value changes so quickly and erratically. The Mirae chairman was arrested earlier this week and charged with embezzling corporate funds and breach of trust. Shares of Hana Financial closed slightly lower on the news at 36,600 won, down 150 won, or 0.41 percent from Tuesday. Hana Capital is not listed. Experts, however, say the scandal will negatively affect the group if it turns out that Kim Seung-yu was involved in bribery. Foreign investors have about a 62 percent stake in Hana Financial, and the corruption scandal may see them sell their stocks due to business uncertainties caused by the fallout, according to observers. The financial authorities suspended four savings banks — Solomon, Mirae, Hanju and Hankuk — earlier this month as they did not meet government standards. All four failed to meet the 8 percent BIS ratio guideline, and some of them even saw their debts surpass assets. The nation’s savings banks have lured customers with higher interests compared to commercial lenders, but many of them filed for bankruptcy recently as they provided loans to project financing in the construction industry, which have been in trouble since the prolonged slump in the property market following the global financial crisis in 2008. Some businessmen in the industry lobbied influential politicians to keep their businesses afloat, but failed to save them and the companies and their wrongdoings have been uncovered in investigations by the financial authorities and prosecutors.

Alibaba buys back stake from Yahoo for $7b

Employees work at Alibaba.com Ltd.’s headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. (Bloomberg)

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., China’s largest e-commerce provider, agreed to repurchase about a 20 percent stake in itself from U.S. Web portal Yahoo! Inc. for about $7.1 billion.

Yahoo will receive at least $6.3 billion in cash and as much as $800 million in newly issued Alibaba preferred stock, the companies said in a statement Monday. Alibaba also will be required to either buy back a quarter of Yahoo’s current stake at the price of a future initial public offering or let Yahoo sell the shares in the IPO.

Alibaba has been trying to buy back the stake in itself for more than a year and stepped up efforts in September, when the U.S. company fired former Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz. While the deal reduces Yahoo’s presence in China, the world’s largest Internet market, it may aid turnaround efforts as the Web portal competes with Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. for users and advertising dollars.

“The cash from a transaction will help Yahoo as it grapples with the challenges in its business,” Jim Tang, a technology analyst at Shenyin Wanguo Securities in Shanghai, said before the announcement. “While Alibaba is the clear leader in the Chinese e-commerce market, it’s been difficult for Yahoo to cash out of its investment, since Alibaba is not publicly traded.”

Yahoo interim CEO Ross Levinsohn stepped into the role this month after Bartz’s successor, Scott Thompson, resigned following an inquiry into his academic record. Thompson said in April that Yahoo was in active discussions with Alibaba about monetizing a portion of its stake.

Yahoo acquired about a 40 percent stake in Hangzhou, east China-based Alibaba in 2005 in exchange for $1 billion and ownership of Yahoo’s Chinese operations.

“The sale of half of Yahoo’s Alibaba stake would represent the partial achievement of a goal that has eluded Yahoo for years,” Clayton Moran, an analyst at Benchmark Co., said in an e-mailed statement. “It appeases shareholders, may give employee morale a much-needed boost, and starts CEO Ross Levinsohn’s term with a win.”

Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, California, rose 3.7 percent to $15.42 at the close in New York on May 18. The shares have fallen 4.4 percent this year.

The two companies struggled to make headway on negotiations under Bartz, who failed to reach an agreement to let Alibaba Group buy back shares in 2010.

Fissures became public by January 2010 when Alibaba Group described as “reckless” Yahoo’s support for Google Inc., which tangled with Chinese authorities over the nation’s Web- censorship rules.

The rift widened in May of last year after the Web portal said the Chinese company spun off its online payment business without informing shareholders. Yahoo said it wasn’t consulted about the transfer of the Alipay unit to a company mostly owned by Jack Ma, chief executive officer of Alibaba Group.

It’s “inappropriate” for Internet companies in China to have high foreign ownership given the increasing regulations on overseas investments in the industry, Alibaba Group Chief Financial Officer Joseph Tsai said in May 2011.
In September, DST Global and Temasek Holdings Pte were among investors that agreed to buy shares of Alibaba in a transaction valuing the Chinese company at $32 billion, people familiar with the deal said at the time.

Silver Lake and Ma’s Yunfeng Capital were also part of the group that bought as much as $1.6 billion in stock from Alibaba employees, said the people.

Tokyo-based Softbank Corp. owns about 30 percent of Alibaba Group, operator of the Taobao online marketplace for consumers, and the Tmall Internet shopping site.

Taobao accounted for about 90 percent of China’s C2C, or consumer-to-consumer, e-commerce market in the third quarter of 2011, according to a Jan. 12 JPMorgan Chase & Co. report.

Yahoo considered a deal with Alibaba and Softbank that would cut its stake in Alibaba to about 15 percent from about 40 percent, a person familiar with the matter said in December.

Alibaba Group “won’t rule out the possibility” of going public, Ma said in a letter to employees in June. In 2007, the company listed Alibaba.com Ltd. in a $1.7 billion offering in Hong Kong, then the biggest IPO for an Internet company since Google Inc.’s in 2004.

China’s e-commerce market may expand 42 percent to 1.1 trillion yuan ($174 billion) this year, according to JPMorgan. (Bloomberg)

K-pop stars at center of limelight at Music Matters in Singapore

K-pop artists will showcase their music and performances at an international music festival that kicks off in Singapore this week.

Supported by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and its affiliate Korea Creative Content Agency, eight groups of K-pop stars will perform at the Ritz-Carlton Millenia Hotel in Clarke Quay, Singapore, on May 24.

The list of artists includes Tiger JK, Yoon Mi-rae, Bizzy, M.I.B, BtoB, Clazzi and Rhythm King.

Yoon Mi-rae. (KOCCA)

During “K-pop Night Out at Music Matters Live 2012,” Tiger JK, Yoon Mi-rae, Bizzy, M.I.B will bring hip-hop while Rhythm King teams up with R&B singer Bumkey to present urban soul music.

Clazzi, one of the three-member project group Clazziquai, will collaborate with singer Lee Seung-yul at the opening stage of the festival on May 24 along with other international artists. Boy band BtoB also makes its international debut through the festival.

BtoB (Cube Entertainment)

M.I.B (KOCCA)

Music Matters, founded in 2006 in Hong Kong, introduces emerging and established artists around the world.

It also holds conferences attended by global promoters, record companies, media and industry experts.

This year’s conference programs include a session on K-pop’s past and present with Rob Schwartz, editor in chief of Billboard Japan, Rasmig Hovaghimian, CEO of Viki.com, Kim Byung-chan, president of Flexus Music, Bernie Cho, president of DFSB Kollective and Korean hip-hop artist Tiger JK on the panel.

Troy Carter, CEO of Atom Factor and manager of Lady Gaga, and Bob Ezrin, an acclaimed producer for Alice Cooper and Pink Floyd, will also join the festival as keynote speakers, officials said.

K-pop artists have been making inroads through Music Matters in Singapore, partly supported by the Korean government. The Culture Ministry and KOCCA have been supporting Korean artists performing in music markets around the world, including South by Southwest in the United States and MIDEM in France. Last year, rock band Crying Nut and R&B group AZIATIX participated in Music Matters in Singapore.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldm.com)

LVMH Korea union protests, calling for better pay, bonuses

A Korean unit of the Paris-based luxury goods company LVMH Group is mired in a labor dispute over pay that could halt sales of some luxury perfumes and cosmetics.

Union members of LVMH Perfumes and Cosmetics Korea, most of whom are sales people, have staged protests since its latest negotiations with management over pay and conditions failed early last week.

The company owns several high-end makeup chains, including Dior, Guerlain, and Make Up For Ever.

Union members of LVMH P&C Korea stage a rally in southern Seoul on Friday. (Renee Park)

The union is demanding wage increases, a fixed annual bonus and reform in the way sales staff salaries vary.

“We have conceded with a proposal for a 6 percent hike to the management. That is our final proposal. We can no longer yield,” labor union leader Jeon Ha-young told The Korea Herald.

She was speaking Friday on the sidelines of the second protest rally in front of the Korean office’s headquarters in Nonhyeon-dong, southern Seoul, involving about 150 union members.

Dressed in red vests reading “Fight,” the union members, who were sitting on the sidewalk on the street, chanted slogans calling for better wages and fixed bonuses.

But the management has refused to accept the labor union’s demand, contending that this year’s sales have been sluggish due to the economic slowdown.

The sides have narrowed their differences over the adjustment of the system by which salaries vary, but they remain poles apart over the implementation of the fixed bonus.

The labor union claims that the system should be introduced to ensure job security. It is calling for an annual lump sum that will, on average, amount to a month’s base salary for each worker.

But the management said it had no plans to adopt the payment system.

“It does not make sense that the company should provide a bonus even though it is posting a loss,” said Andrew Kim, manager of human resources at LVMH Perfumes and Cosmetics Korea.

Kim also said the negotiation had not made progress since the labor union is refusing to discuss other issues until the company agrees to adopt the bonus system.

No deadline has been set by either party, but the two sides are expected to go into arbitration on a labor dispute by the government to avert a strike as early as this week.

The labor union’s protests were organized to time with the one-day visit to Seoul of Bernard Arnault, CEO and president of LVMH Group on May 17.

According to news reports, the 63-year-old CEO held a series of meetings with chiefs of the nation’s giant retailers such as Shinsegae, Hyundai and Lotte departments in an effort to inspect the business climate of the region.

LVMH Perfurmes and Cosmetics Korea was one of Korea’s offices of the global luxury giant, whose business activities include wines and spirits, fashion and leather goods, and watches and jewelry. There are about 800 workers in the company and about 650 are union members.

By Renee Park (renee@heraldm.com)

Facebook launches K-pop page

Facebook said Monday it has launched a K-pop music page to help fans of Korean pop music around the world to engage with their K-pop idols more actively.

The page, provided jointly by Facebook and Korea’s largest entertainment agency SM Entertainment, will be updated with latest K-pop news and content both in Korean and English.

On Monday morning at 11 a.m., Seoul time, the K-pop page delivered SM Town Concert held in Los Angeles.

The page is seen at www.facebook.com/kpopmusic.

(yoonmi@heraldm.com)

High school student wins gold at Philosophy Olympiad

High school student wins gold at Philosophy Olympiad

Yoon Hye-mi By By Alexander Ahn A third-year student at the Hankuk Academy of Foreign Studies, Yoon Hye-mi, won the gold medal at the 2012 International Philosophy Olympiad (IPO) that took place in Oslo, Norway, from May 16 to 20. The 18-year-old high school student won Korea its first gold medal from the IPO since it started participating in 2002. Korea has previously produced several silver and bronze medalists, as well as a few honorable mentions, but this is the first time in 10 years it has brought home the gold. Yoon said the key to her victory was her love of reading, a habit she developed since she was very young. As her favorite genre is fantasy, she started reading J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" in English, which helped establish her foreign language fluency. She originally planned to study science as a foreign exchange student in the United States and her prospects seem good after she received a perfect score of 2,400 on the SAT in January. Her father, Yoon Min-Sang, 60, said laughing, “I was surprised she won. When she gets back home we will have to discuss again what field of study she should pursue in college.” This year, 81 students from 39 countries competed. They were given four hours to write a philosophical essay on one of four topics in English, French, or German, as long as it is not the official language of the student’s country. Apart from Yoon, the only other gold medalist for this year came from Lithuania. The IPO was founded in 1993 by philosophy teachers from Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Turkey and Germany. It is an International Science Olympiad, an annual philosophy competition for high school students, organized by the FISP (Federation Internationale des Societes de Philosophie) and supported by UNESCO

Paper Cup Production Line