HEI looking for foreign partners

Hyundai Electronics Industries (HEI) is looking to form strategic alliances with foreign companies including those in the United States, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance and Economy Minister Jin Nyum said Monday. Jin said in a press conference that the move was part of HEI`s self-rescue plan, announced last January, which called for spinning off non-semiconductor businesses and breaking up the business group. Hyundai Group is also reportedly reviewing a plan to hand over its 19-percent stake in HEI to a foreign strategic investor as part of the spin-off effort.

Jin added that a decision over the weekend by creditor banks to provide financial aid to HEI and two other Hyundai firms was just reconfirming an earlier pledge, not an offer of fresh loans to the Hyundai Group. On the situation at Korea Life Insurance (KLI), the minister said the government was seeking to normalize operations while engaging in negotiations to sell it off. Jin said the government would select a financial institute to manage the sale by the end of March and take steps to sell it from next month.

Choi Young-Hae moneychoi@donga.com