S. Korea`s debt restructuring agency buys 1.24 tln won in bad assets

SEOUL, March 18 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's state-run debt restructuring agency
said Wednesday it has forged a deal to buy 1.24 trillion won (US$875 million)
worth of bad assets from a group of savings banks.
With the move, the Korea Asset Management Corp.'s (KAMCO) purchases of
property-related loans from the country's mutual savings banks have reached 1.74
trillion won, it said.
In December, KAMCO bought 502 billion won worth of project financing-related bad
debts from the savings banks.
The debt turnaround agency is also set to buy bad assets from commercial lenders,
which are saddled with a heap of bad loans stemming from a severe economic
downturn.
The country is planning to launch a 40 trillion won restructuring fund this year
to buy bad assets from financial companies.
South Korean banks' loan default ratio marked a 3-year high in February with the
nation's smaller firms being hit hardest by the economic recession, data from the
country's financial watchdog showed.
Eighteen local lenders' loan delinquency ratio stood at an average of 1.67
percent as of end-February, the highest since October 2005 when the ratio reached
the same level, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.
sam@yna.co.kr
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