KAMCO to buy US$13 bln of bad debts in 2010

SEOUL, Jan. 4 (Yonhap) -- The state-run debt clearer Korea Asset Management Corp.
(KAMCO) plans to buy 15 trillion won of troubled assets (US$13 billion) this year
through a state fund of 10 trillion won to help companies restructure, the
company chief said Monday.

"KAMCO will push to take over bad debts from financial companies as well as
buying assets from firms under restructuring," Chairman Lee Chol-hwi said in his
New Year's address.
In a bid to pre-empt household loans going sour, the debt clearance agency will
also buy 1.2 trillion won in household bad debts, using its own fund, Lee said.
"This year will be a year with greater uncertainties than before," the chairman
said, noting "We have yet to reach the end of the global economic crisis."
In 2009, KAMCO took over 9.6 trillion won of distressed debts, nearly three times
its purchase a year earlier, as the company scrambled to bolster bank and
corporate balance sheets.
South Korea set up a public fund of 20 trillion won in May last year in a bid to
help banks recapitalize and support corporate debt rescheduling as the
U.S.-triggered global financial crunch resulted in a steep rise in bank default
rates.
pbr@yna.co.kr
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