Intercultural Business News

South Korea’s Government has granted a rare “special pardon” to the former chairman of Samsung Electronics so that the tycoon can help with the country’s increasingly desperate-looking bid to host the Winter Olympics.

Lee Kun-hee, the 67-year old industrialist credited with turning Samsung into an aggressive global competitor, resigned last year in a swirl of accusations that the company had maintained a colossal political slush fund.

Will Lee Kun-hee Rejuvinate South Koreas Winter Olympics Bid?

Shortly afterwards, in a judgment that shook the Korean business world to its core, Mr Lee was convicted of “financial wrongdoing” and tax evasion and handed a three-year suspended prison sentence.

The effect on national morale was seismic.
Mr Lee represented the very elite of Korean society and was a symbol of Korea’s corporate success on the international stage. Some commentators even compared his power and influence at their peak to that of the central government.

His downfall was painful in other ways, too.

During his rise to the top, Mr Lee was granted a spot on the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Samsung has sponsored the past five Summer Olympics, starting with the 1988 games in Seoul.

Read More>Times Online

Volkswagen is poised to buy a large stake in Suzuki, the Japanese carmaker whose mini-cars dominate several emerging economies and comprise more than half the vehicles on the road in India.

People familiar with the talks, which may lead to the German carmaker sinking more than 300 billion yen (£2 billion) into Suzuki, expect an announcement on the capital tie-up before the end of the month.

Volkswagen may push the alliance further if it seeks to buy a controlling stake in the Japanese company next year.

Will The Partnership Lead To A TAkeover By VW?

The move would be Volkswagen’s first big investment in a Japanese rival and has echoes of a deal being negotiated between Peugeot Citroën, of France, and Mitsubishi Motors, the struggling Japanese carmaker.
 
The move is understood to be entirely non-hostile, contrary to recent comments by Osamu Suzuki, the 79-year-old patriarch of Suzuki, who denied any talk of new alliances with overseas groups.

Analysts have been speculating for some months that Suzuki represented one of the most attractive automotive assets in Asia for a potential buyer.

Read More>Times Online

At about two feet tall, it may turn out to be the world’s most compact revolution: The Tata Swach, launched Monday, is a water purifier priced for the masses, which India’s Tata Group hopes will help save the lives of millions of people who die each year of waterborne diseases.

“This is opening up a complete new market,” said R. Mukundan, managing director of Tata Chemicals Ltd. “It doesn’t compete with any existing product.”

Will This Product Save Millions Of Lives?

The Tata Swach — Hindi for “clean” — meets U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards, doesn’t require running water, electricity, or boiling and is priced so that the mass of rural Indian consumers can afford it, executives said.

Group chairman Ratan Tata is scheduled to announce the sale price later Monday.

The water filter grew out of a decade of research and development, led by three different companies in the Tata Group. Tata is one of India’s largest conglomerates, making everything from table salt to Jaguar automobiles — as well as the ultra-cheap Nano compact car, which like the Swach filter targets a lower income rural market many companies have ignored.

Read More>Business Week

Chinese carmaker Geely, picked as the preferred bidder for Ford Motor’s Volvo unit, is seeking at least $1 billion in loans from Chinese banks to back its $1.8 billion bid.
Three major Chinese banks planned to jointly extend loans to Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, including Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Export-Import Bank of China had.

Bank of China is China’s top foreign exchange lender. China Construction Bank is the country’s No 1 property lender. Export-Import Bank of China is a policy lender wholly-owned by the Chinese government and directly led by the State Council.

Will This Be The New Logo For Volvo?

“Money is not a problem for Geely,” said an unidentified source. “They definitely have strong support from Chinese banks and there are a number of private equity funds queuing up to invest in Geely.”

The three Chinese banks mentioned above refused to comment on specific loans to clients.

Hangzhou-headquartered Geely, which means “lucky” in Chinese, is in need of modern and innovative technologies, which may be met by the Swedish brand, to upgrade its car lineup and tap the auto market.

Last month, Volvo’s union leaders held their first talks with Geely but were still waiting to see Geely’s financing plans for the loss-making Swedish carmaker.

Geely reached an agreement last week with Ford on intellectual property right (IPR) issues in its bid for Volvo, clearing a major barrier for the deal.

Read More>China Daily

In a stadium filled with pumping music and strobe lighting, hundreds of tech-savvy customers – many of whom had queued through the night – witnessed the official launch of the Apple iPhone in South Korea at the weekend.

The much-hyped launch underlined the continued appeal of the iPhone, as well as just how much domestic players such as Samsung Electronics will have to do to catch up in the smartphone market.

Apple’s flagship product – 60,000 units of which were pre-ordered for the weekend – was launched in South Korea following regulatory bickering that consumer lobbyists viewed as protectionism. They argued that Apple was being kept out of the market in order to safeguard the interests of Samsung, which is trailing behind Nokia and Apple in the smartphone market.

Will Samsung Lose Out With The iPhone Launch?

The battle for market share has become even more important because smartphones – mobile phones that double as mini-computers – offer the highest margins and fastest growth at a time when overall handset sales are shrinking.

Samsung has rapidly built global market share in conventional handsets to more than 20 per cent, making it second only to Nokia. But it holds just 4 per cent of the global smartphone market, against Nokia’s 35 per cent and the 17 per cent held by Apple.

Lee Young-hee, head of marketing at Samsung’s mobile division, says a counter-offensive on the smartphone front is imminent. “Next year, we will put our whole focus and strategy on smartphones,” Ms Lee says. “We are still fine-tuning, but will probably be the number one in delivering the biggest portfolio of smartphones to the market next year.”

Read More>Financial Times