Even companies whose share price soared 20-fold use this trick… a "new money game" in which only retail investors get fleeced. KOSDAQ's "money game of greed" (1): The secret of the new corporate raiders who built "a kingdom of their own." Issue CBs → acquire listed companies… "money-play M&A" repeated endlessly. Ssangbangwool, KH and others built "a kingdom of their own" with this kind of trick. In the process the share price swings; the damage falls entirely on investors. They are loss-making marginal companies. They have no credit rating either. Even so, the issuance rate is near zero. They raise funds through a private-placement method in which only specific people can take part. Investors line up. The funding market froze with the Legoland incident, but this place alone is a calm zone. This is the story of the KOSDAQ convertible bond (CB) issuance market.
The money raised by issuing CBs is used for corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&A). The M&A forms a theme and the share price swings. This is the typical pattern of capital-free M&A repeated in the KOSDAQ market these days. M&A is merely a means; the essence is a "money game."
A liquidity crisis triggered by real-estate PF… Lotte E&C abruptly replaces its CEO. CEO Ha Seok-ju offers to resign, taking responsibility for the crisis. Park Hyun-chul, holding-company president, and others mentioned as successors. Meritz Financial brings its fire and securities units in as wholly owned subsidiaries. It delists the fire and securities units through a share swap. [Exclusive] Banks shouldering the burden of KEPCO bonds… the four major banks supply over 2 trillion to KEPCO. In the real-estate ice age… 1 in 4 Seoul homeowners pays the comprehensive real-estate tax.
Tax bills land on 1.3 million people. This year 584,000 people in Seoul are subject. "Not a tax on the rich but a tax on the middle class." A Seocho-gu apartment owner's comprehensive real-estate tax notice rose from 1.38 million won last year to 1.63 million this year. "House prices fall but taxes rise"—indignation. The government: "We submit a bill to raise the basic comprehensive real-estate tax deduction to 900 million won and abolish the heavier rate on multiple-home owners." If the supermajority opposition objects, the amendment cannot pass. This year's 20-fold-soaring lithium theme stocks also use this trick… "Running the CB factory for capital-free M&A." 『Convertible bonds』 (1): The secret of the new corporate raiders who built "a kingdom of their own." Ssangbangwool and the KH Group also used the same method. Listed companies became "factories that print CBs." Repeating M&A and seasoning it with a "theme," and when the share price soars dozens of times the big players pull out. Bithumb theme stocks also issued 510 billion won in CBs. New chairmen seated on "cushions of money" worth hundreds of billions. Into the seats vacated by former gangsters and loan sharks, people from the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and former prosecution investigators step in. Receiving law-firm and IB advice and presenting it as "legal," it is a new money game in which only retail investors get fleeced. Financial authorities have left it unattended for over 10 years. [Exclusive] A 2-trillion emergency loan… the "KEPCO butterfly effect" causes a money drought even at banks. Banks shouldering the burden of KEPCO bonds; the four major banks supply over 2 trillion to KEPCO. Shunned "credit A-grade" companies wage an all-out battle to raise funds. Pushed aside by "AA-grade" and higher prime bonds, yet unable to offer rates as high as "BBB-grade." Hi Investment Securities, Moorim Paper, Hanwha and others step up with parent-company guarantees and CP issuance. Trade deficit for 8 straight months… cumulative deficit through November of 40 billion dollars. November exports down 17% from last year. The Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade: "A 26.6 billion-dollar deficit next year too." A country with more pets than children… "By 2035 Korea will fall below and rank last." Shrinking population, vanishing Korea (36): Taiwan, its security threatened by low birth rates. Taiwan: "By 2035 our birth rate will fall below Korea's and be the world's lowest." This year's total fertility rate of 0.89, the lowest ever. Even under China's threat, a shortage of soldiers is an "emergency." Talent to sustain the semiconductor industry is also lacking. With soaring house prices and stagnant wages, tight household budgets and the burden of child-rearing.