Re: Korea owned by foreigners?

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

Title: RE: [PEN-L] Korea owned by foreigners?

I wonder if it matters. Are S. Korea or Canadian capitalists better, less rapacious, than US ones? One way it matters is that the US ones have the US state to back them up, perhaps in effect getting "extraterrorial rights" in other countries.

------------------------
Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine

> -----Original Message-----
> From: k hanly [mailto:khanly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2003 9:08 AM
> To: PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Korea owned by foreigners?
>
>
> This used to be a big issue in the left in Canada but it
> doesnt seem to
> generate the same interest nowadays as back in the sixties.
> Here is a URL
> for a piece by Mel Hurtig a publisher businessman who has always been
> critical of foreign (mostly US) control of Canadian
> companies. He claims
> that 40 percent of the top 500 Canadian companies are foreign
> controlled but
> share ownership value percentage would be much less.
>
> http://www.monetary-reform.on.ca/archives/5h.shtml
>
> According to statstics  Canada value of foreign owned
> businesses is 24% but
> this factoid is not of much analytical value. Hurtig points
> out that almost
> all of recent foreign investment -well over 90 percent-- has been for
> takeovers rather than investment to create new businesses and
> also that
> whole sectors such as the auto and chemical industry are dominated by
> foreign investment.
>
> Cheers, Ken Hanly
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Eugene Coyle" <eugenecoyle@xxxxxxx>
> To: <PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2003 10:28 AM
> Subject: Korea owned by foreigners?
>
>
> > Today's WSJ reports that
> >
> > "Foreigners now own more than 34% of South Korean shares by
> value, up
> > from just 13% at the end of 1996, the year before the start
> of the Asian
> > financial crisis.  This is leading to friction between
> investors looking
> > for Western-style corporate governance and Korean managers."
> >
> > 34% of public shares seems to me to be extremely high.
> >
> > Anybody know statistics for other countries?
> >
> > Gene Coyle
>