We expect Korea Development Bank (KDB, Aa2, stable) to report continued asset pressure from its exposures to the shipbuilding and shipping industries. However, its capital buffers are sufficient to absorb related credit costs, even under our stressed scenario.The Korean government‘s (Aa2 stable) announcements on 8 June of its Restructuring Plan for the Shipping and Shipbuilding Industries and Measures for the Recapitalization of Policy Banks do not change the fundamental credit issue facing the

WHAT’S THE STORY?2H policy includes plan to stabilize presales market: Korea’s Ministry of Strategy and Finance yesterday released its 2H economic policy, with a KRW20t financial improvement plan (including a KRW10t supplementary budget), while policies related to housing and construction comprise measures to: 1) stabilize the nation’s overheated presales market; 2) stimulate rentals via REITs; 3) expand the infrastructure for publicprivate partnerships [PPPs]; and 4) support overseas orders. We

[THE INVESTOR] South Korea will become a member of the Paris Club, a group of creditor countries, the Finance Ministry said on June 29. Asia’s fourth largest economy will join the club as the 21st member this week at the club’s meeting to celebrate its 60th anniversary on July 1 in Paris, according to the ministry.South Korea’s Vice Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok will attend the ceremony, it added.The Paris Club is an association of creditor countries with the major aim of finding sustainable so

[THE INVESTOR] JB Asset Management said on June 30 that it invested 46.5 billion won (US$40 million) in a project involving the renovation of the Pacific Beach Hotel in Hawaii. Located on Waikiki beach in Honolulu, the hotel features 839 rooms with nearly 90 percent of occupancy rate over the past three years.JB Asset Management expects to gain an annual return of 7 percent from the 5-year investment. The South Korean management firm raised capital by forming a real estate fund in which a handfu