Wes Bucey
19th June 2005, 08:44 AM
Just my personal opinion, but I think there are a lot of bankers and politicians who should be in adjoining cells with Mr. Kim Woo-choong. I really like the term "bicycle conglomerate" because it is so descriptive of so many "fire fighting" business mentalities where folks say, "I don't have time to plan ahead; I'm too busy putting out fires!" Daewoo founder: corp. hero, fraud suspect
Saturday June 18, 11:36 PM EDT
By Jon Herskovitz
SEOUL (Reuters) - Daewoo founder Kim Woo-choong inspired a generation of South Korean entrepreneurs, but now he sits in a tiny prison cell where the only privilege his status has earned him is an electric fan and a small TV.
Kim, 69, is a legend in South Korea. He was a fabric salesman who invested about $5,000 in a textiles company in 1967. He used his enormous energy, business acumen and close ties to South Korea's leaders to build that into a conglomerate that once employed 320,000 people in 110 countries.
He called his company Daewoo, which means "enormous universe" in Korean. In 1999, he fled South Korea when Daewoo collapsed in one of world's largest bankruptcies, with some $70 billion in debts.
"I will accept due punishment from the judicial system to repent for what I have done," Kim said before he was put in a car and taken to the Seoul Correctional Institution last week.
Kim was taken into custody immediately upon his return to South Korea from a six-year, self-imposed exile. South Koreans expressed mixed emotions over his return.
"In many ways, Kim epitomises Korea's rapid growth in the 1980s and 90s. To see such a man arrested and taken away for questioning immediately upon his return home is the cause of mixed feelings among many people," the conservative daily Chosun Ilbo wrote in an editorial.
Kim was a favorite of the working man in South Korea for taking chances by launching massive projects in developing countries, such as auto factories in Uzbekistan or building railroads in Iran when it was in the midst of its war with Iraq.
He borrowed frantically to keep up the expansion of Daewoo, which was called a "bicycle conglomerate" in South Korea because it had keep its wheels moving or fall down.
Continuous spending, borrowing and expansion meant thin margins for Daewoo even at the best of times. When the Asian financial crisis hit South Korea in 1997, the wheels at Daewoo got jammed.
In August 1999, the South Korean government took control of Daewoo's debts, leaving the South Korean taxpayer holding the bag for billions of dollars in losses.
"He has brought too much pain to the Korean people," wrote Lim Ha-jin on a Web site for former Daewoo employees. "Because of one person, a number of young people were forced to leave companies where they had worked with dreams and passion."
Daewoo, then a multinational giant in civil engineering, automobiles and shipbuilding, broke into a clutch of businesses after its 1999 collapse.
Kim left on a business trip to China in October 1999, which began his exile. He sent a farewell message to his employees the following month.
When he returned to South Korea last week, hundreds of people who lost their jobs when Daewoo failed were on hand to call for tough justice.
He will soon be charged with fraud and embezzlement and could spend the rest of his life in jail if he is convicted.
©2005 Reuters Limited.
Saturday June 18, 11:36 PM EDT
By Jon Herskovitz
SEOUL (Reuters) - Daewoo founder Kim Woo-choong inspired a generation of South Korean entrepreneurs, but now he sits in a tiny prison cell where the only privilege his status has earned him is an electric fan and a small TV.
Kim, 69, is a legend in South Korea. He was a fabric salesman who invested about $5,000 in a textiles company in 1967. He used his enormous energy, business acumen and close ties to South Korea's leaders to build that into a conglomerate that once employed 320,000 people in 110 countries.
He called his company Daewoo, which means "enormous universe" in Korean. In 1999, he fled South Korea when Daewoo collapsed in one of world's largest bankruptcies, with some $70 billion in debts.
"I will accept due punishment from the judicial system to repent for what I have done," Kim said before he was put in a car and taken to the Seoul Correctional Institution last week.
Kim was taken into custody immediately upon his return to South Korea from a six-year, self-imposed exile. South Koreans expressed mixed emotions over his return.
"In many ways, Kim epitomises Korea's rapid growth in the 1980s and 90s. To see such a man arrested and taken away for questioning immediately upon his return home is the cause of mixed feelings among many people," the conservative daily Chosun Ilbo wrote in an editorial.
Kim was a favorite of the working man in South Korea for taking chances by launching massive projects in developing countries, such as auto factories in Uzbekistan or building railroads in Iran when it was in the midst of its war with Iraq.
He borrowed frantically to keep up the expansion of Daewoo, which was called a "bicycle conglomerate" in South Korea because it had keep its wheels moving or fall down.
Continuous spending, borrowing and expansion meant thin margins for Daewoo even at the best of times. When the Asian financial crisis hit South Korea in 1997, the wheels at Daewoo got jammed.
In August 1999, the South Korean government took control of Daewoo's debts, leaving the South Korean taxpayer holding the bag for billions of dollars in losses.
"He has brought too much pain to the Korean people," wrote Lim Ha-jin on a Web site for former Daewoo employees. "Because of one person, a number of young people were forced to leave companies where they had worked with dreams and passion."
Daewoo, then a multinational giant in civil engineering, automobiles and shipbuilding, broke into a clutch of businesses after its 1999 collapse.
Kim left on a business trip to China in October 1999, which began his exile. He sent a farewell message to his employees the following month.
When he returned to South Korea last week, hundreds of people who lost their jobs when Daewoo failed were on hand to call for tough justice.
He will soon be charged with fraud and embezzlement and could spend the rest of his life in jail if he is convicted.
©2005 Reuters Limited.
