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| COVER STORY |
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STAYIN'
ALIVE
Scorned in his
home market, CFO Martin Lee of Korea's LG TeleCom has
taken his case to global investors. LGT is in a desperate
bid to survive as the third-ranked player in Korea's cellular
market. Lee has overseen the company's bold strategy since
it demerged with its chaebol parent by making LGT everything
its competitors are not. The company is building its 3G
network incrementally, spending less, and improving finances
and internal corporate governance. After several breakthroughs
in March and April, Lee's mission looks less quixotic
day by day.
read
the entire story |
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| SPECIAL REPORT: CORPORATE FINANCE |
ACCESS
PREMIUM
Despite the lowest interest-rate
environment in years, the majority of Asian companies are
totally missing the boat to cheap debt-market funding. Investors
remain wary of second-tier credits, so liquidity tends to
stay within a handful of the largest Asian names. For those
who do not belong to this club of corporate elite, the access
premium for the privilege of borrowing from global investors
is still too high. The result is that Asian companies have
been reluctant to tap the bond markets. |
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| FEATURE |
MICROSOFTER...OR
NOT
John Connors, the CFO of Microsoft,
has seen his job go from a laugh to the bank to making the
numbers quarter by quarter. A raft of challenges now faces
Connors - declining earnings, an antitrust case, and impaired
investments made by his predecessor. Microsoft hopes Connors,
its fourth CFO, is the right man at the right time. How will
he cope with these challenges? |
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| FEATURE |
LE PRIX
FIXE
Are fee structures for
investment banking services starting to loosen? This year, a
few high-profile transactions hit the market with fees at bargain
rates. It turns out these are the exceptions that prove the
rule. Bankers generally agree that there are certain fee 'norms',
based on the industry's pricing precedence or in terms of benchmarks,
but deny that there is any aspect of collusion. Still, if there
is no price fixing, how do banks manage to keep their fees steady?
Consolidation in the industry is one answer, along with a wide
degree of cooperation. |
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| ACCOUNTING |
ON THE
SAME PAGE
The convergence
of international accounting standards and US generally accepted
accounting principles continues apace, but is complicated by
cultural and political issues. Among these is the debate over
the "rules-based" approach versus the "principles-based"
approach. But the need for global standards, as well as for
innovations, will continue to drive the rewriting of accounting
standards. |
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| DEALWATCH |
THE
0.1 PERCENT SOLUTION
With tougher competition globally
and dull economic performance dragging into a second decade,
Japanese companies are starting to accept that having a new
owner or co-owner is better than going it alone. But mergers
raise the question of who's in charge. Roche's acquisition
of Chugai Pharmaceutical shows how a company can widen its
access to the Japanese market if it is prepared to tread very
carefully and be generous with autonomy. |
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| TECHWATCH |
WIRELESS WORRIES
Can the wireless industry rally
excitement for the possibilities of 3G, a technology that
may bring very little extra to the business of mobile communication?
Wireless data transmission can be a good thing for companies,
but cost is only one of many impediments to its implementation
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