S.Korea Himart plans to raise about $500 mln in IPO

SEOUL, July 29 (Reuters) – Himart, South Korea’s biggest
electronics retailer, plans to raise about 600 billion won
($506.3 million) in a 2011 initial public offering, a Himart
official said.

Himart has chosen Daewoo Securities to manage the IPO, the
proceeds of which are likely to be used to pay off debts owed by
its parent firm Eugene Corp (023410.KQ), the official, who
declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue,
said.

Himart, founded in 1987, operates 281 stores in the country.
In its 2009 financial year the company had a a net loss of 37.2
billion won.

Eugene Corp has an 80 percent stake in Himart. Himart CEO Sun
Jong-koo has a 19 percent shareholding, a March regulatory filing
showed.

For a factbox on South Korea’s IPO market, click on
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Using wives and daughters to pay off debts not on, says Malaysian Indian Congress

Kuala Lumpur, May 29 (ANI): Malaysian Indian Business Association president P. Sivakumar has called on the federal government to intervene and stop the heinous practice of offering wives and daughters to loan sharks as exchange for repayment of debts.

Sivakumar made this plea after he was made aware of a case where a woman, who stood guarantor for the RM18,000 loan, was now saddled with debts of RM36,000.

“She is forced to be a slave of the loan shark as no one is willing to help,” the New Strait Times quoted Sivakumar, as saying.

He called on the authorities to establish an arbitrary organization to help in similar cases.aringan Rakyat Tertindas coordinator Y. Kohila said although it was not advisable to seek out loan sharks, many, especially retrenched workers, had no other option.

“What we need is swift government intervention to assist those with financial needs. Those saddled with loan shark problems must be provided with proper avenues to settle their debts,” Kohila said.

MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Michael Chong said he had highlighted many cases of families being victimized by loan sharks.

Although this is tantamount to prostituting the women, the loan sharks had little choice but to use them as collateral when all other avenues to recover the debts failed.

Rather than get hounded or beaten up, some of the defaulters’ families gave in, Chong said. (ANI)