Gov't set to pick new industries for restructuring

South Korea may choose additional industries for restructuring next week as part of efforts to weed out troubled companies that could put a damper on Asia's fourth-largest economy down the road, government and industry sources said Tuesday.

In line with its sweeping restructuring drive to keep financially troubled companies from becoming a drag on the economy, the government has already singled out five industries -- shipbuilding, shipping, construction, steelmaking and petrochemicals.

In particular, local shipyards saw their losses snowball last year due to a delay in the construction of offshore facilities and order cancellations amid a prolonged slump in the global shipbuilding sector, sparking concerns over its fallout on the economy.

According to the sources, the head of the Financial Services Commission, the country's financial regulator, is slated to convene a meeting of a government task force next week to check the status quo of corporate overhauls and discuss the designation of more susceptible sectors.

"Working-level discussions are now under way, with the aim of holding the meeting this month," a government source said. "Depending on the outcome of the planned meeting, the government may additionally designate vulnerable industries if necessary."

The FSC chief, the country's top financial regulator, chairs the government body that is also represented by vice ministers of the finance ministry and other economy-related ministries. It serves as a control tower for boosting the competitiveness of key industries and discussing the country's corporate restructuring.

In November last year, the task force met for the second time to come up with a package of measures to help spur restructuring of industries that are sensitive to the business cycle.

The package covers ground rules for the overhaul of the country's shipping, shipbuilding and construction sectors. It also contains ways to eliminate overcapacity in the steel and petrochemical industries.

At the upcoming meeting, the consultative council is expected to again assess the restructuring process of the five embattled industries and announce supplementary measures that mirror situational changes, according to the government source.

Based on a comprehensive, industry-by-industry analysis, the body will also likely pick industrial sectors that are highly leveraged or suffer from chronic overcapacity, which could serve as a reference for banks' assessment of corporate credit risks, he added.

Market watchers said the local display industry may be singled out as a sector whose partial overcapacity needs to be eliminated.

A government official stressed that the role of the consultative body is only to provide a framework for corporate restructuring, while creditor banks and affected companies will take the lead.

Meanwhile, the FSC plans to unveil a list of companies subject to restructuring in July, based on the results of a credit risk analysis on businesses that owe over 50 billion won ($44 million) to banks. The FSC plans to release the results on small and medium-sized companies in November.

Last year, the FSC found that 54 companies out of the 1,900 subjected to credit analyses failed to meet a set of financial health requirements. The 54 were placed under a debt-rescheduling program or a court receivership. (Yonhap)