Troubled Banks News

Seoul shares open higher on EU deal; shipbuilders lead According to Reuters, Seoul shares rose at market opening on Monday, poised for a third-straight winning session as investors welcomed an agreement by Eurozone leaders to directly recapitalize the region's troubled banks and ease soaring debt costs in Spain and Italy. Early gains were led by shipyards, as Samsung Heavy Industries climbed 3 percent while Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering rose 2.5 percent.

Turkish deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz said one of the eight troubled banks controlled by a central bank fund would be rehabilitated to provide financing for the maritime sector. Turkey's central bank last year seized eight commercial banks, whose 1999 losses approached $4.7 billion, and is weighing plans for rehabilitating and possibly selling them. Turkey promised the International Monetary Fund (IMF) it would decide on a plan for dealing with the banks this month, after receiving a $295 million installment of its $4 billion loan backing a disinflation program in July. Turkey has hired consulting firms to draw up a strategy for resolving the banks' bad loan portfolios and advise on restructuring them with an eye toward eventual sale.