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More than six out of every 10 CEOs of foreign-invested firms said last month's court ruling against the U.S. private equity fund Lone Star would cast a dark cloud over foreign investment in South Korea.
This is the result of a survey conducted recently by the Institute of Global Management among 37 CEOs of member companies of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea and the European Union Chamber of Commerce in Korea.
According to the survey results released on Wednesday, 62 percent of the polled executives said they feel the verdict will make it difficult for them to recommend Seoul to their headquarters as an ideal investment destination. Only 3 percent said the verdict will have a lasting positive effect. Thirty-five percent said it will have no particular effect at all.
On Feb. 1, a Seoul district court found Lone Star guilty of stock manipulation in its controversial takeover of the credit card unit of the Korea Exchange Bank.
Some 68 percent of respondents said they believe the guilty verdict against Lone Star was "affected by external factors rather than by the case itself."
As for those external factors, 49 percent cited the "anti-foreign sentiment prevalent in South Korea." Twenty-seven percent cited the "image of Lone Star created by some media outlets as an eat-and-run vulture investor."
Most of the foreign executives expressed high levels of distrust in the South Korean court system. Specifically, 60 percent said Korean courts did not compare favorably to those of advanced nations in their handling of foreign-invested firms.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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