S. Korean listed firms recover from Lehman collapse in Q3

SEOUL, Dec. 10 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's listed companies pulled out of the
aftermath of the late 2008 collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers in
the third quarter, bolstered by state stimulus measures, the nation's financial
watchdog said Thursday.
The net income of firms listed on the Seoul main bourse came to a combined 18
trillion won (US$15.5 billion) in the July-September quarter, up 283 percent from
the same period last year, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said in a
report.
The report is based on balance sheets of 1,504 listed companies whose fiscal year
ends Dec. 31.
The companies' combined total assets reached 1,048 trillion won in the three
month period, higher than the 967 trillion won recorded a year earlier, the
report showed.
The third-quarter recoveries were mainly driven by favorable interest rate levels
and foreign exchange rates, the FSS said in the report.
Since October of last year, the Bank of Korea has slashed its policy rate to a
record low 2 percent and has kept the rate unchanged until this month to spur a
still-meager economic recovery.
The companies' dependency on borrowing and capital spending, however, has yet to
improve, indicating lingering uncertainties over the economy, the FSS said.
The gauge of debt dependency, calculated by dividing the firms' total borrowing
by total capital, stood at 24.4 in the third quarter from 22.3 a year earlier,
according to the FSS.
pbr@yna.co.kr
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