• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.61
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• pp.273-302
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• 2014

Project finance ("PF") is a method of raising long-term debt financing based on lending against the cash flow generated by the project alone. Project finance is a nonrecourse or limited recourse financing structure against the sponsors(or the investors). The debt terms in a project finance are not based on the creditor's credit support or on the value of the assets of the project. Lenders rely on the future cash flow to be generated by the project for debt repayment and interest, rather than the value of the project or the credit ratings of the sponsors. The non-recourse or limited recourse financing usually prompt potential project finance lenders to assess carefully all possible risks that might arise in a project to ensure that those risks are mitigated and controlled. In this respect, project finance is a opposite financing method of corporate finance. Project finance has rapidly grown over the last 20 years due to the worldwide process of privatization of public sector and development of natural resources. Global project finance volume reached the record USD 406.5 billion in 2011. In 2012, however, Global project finance volume dropped 6% to USD 382.3 billion. Infrastructure overtook Energy to lead all sectors with USD 113.6 billion. It is generally recognized that there are more and higher risks in project finance compared with corporate finance. Project finance is exposed to commercial risks as well as political risks. The main commercial risks are completion risks, environmental risks, operating risks, input supply risks, revenue risks, etc, and the main political risks are currency convertibility and transfer risks, expropriation risks, war and civil disturbance risks, risks of breach of government concession agreement, etc. Completion risks include permits risks, risks relating to the EPC Contractor, construction cost overrun, delay in completion, inadequate performance on completion, etc.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.533-551
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• 2008

Export Credit Agency(ECA) plays a role of importance in international trade and investment flows. The first ECA, the Export Credits Guarantee Department(ECGD) of the United kingdom, was established in 1919. Its original purpose was to encourage and support exports that would not otherwise have taken. Similar motivations led to the establishment, most of those in operation today. Their traditional role is to support and encourage exports and outward investment by insuring international trade and investment transactions, and in some cases by providing trade finance directly. ECA come in all shapes and sizes, and there in no such thing as a typical ECA model. Most of them insure both political and commercial risks on exports and until the last decade. They operated as government entities or on the account of their government, and many of them have changed and are still changing. This study focuses and analyzes the changes of those four major countries' ECAs, which are the U.S.A.(EXIM), France(COFACE), Japan(JBIC), and Canada(EDC).

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.1-29
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• 2004

The role of the financial institution to promote corporate sustainability may be reviewed in two angles, as a commercial lender and an investor. As a commercial lender, financial institutions should minimize the legal risks and the political risks. Financial institutions began to recognize environmental risks as legal risks that directly affect their lending practices since the legislation of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act("Superfund") of the U.S.A. The so-called lender liability rule has a detailed guideline where the financial institutions may be exempted from the Superfund Liability. Similar attempts are noticed in the recent EU White Paper on Environmental Liability. In Korea, comprehensive environmental liability laws are yet to be developed. The Soil Environment Preservation Act now includes a far-reaching environmental liability provisions, where the owners and operators as well as receivers of the facility bear responsibility. However, whether the financial institutions may be captured as a potential responsible party is not very clear. Until the relevant legislation is developed and court decisions accumulate, Korean financial institutions are well advised to raise awareness on this issue, to develop environmental policies and to train personnels.

• Korean Journal of Artificial Intelligence
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.13-16
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• 2019

While the Chinese banks have started the impact of foreign banks. At the same time, rising pressure on foreign exchange reserves and appreciation of the renminbi has prompted Chinese banks to go abroad and diversify their risks. The financial crisis of 2008 has caused the continued turbulence of the major financial markets around the world, and the valuation of foreign financial institutions has been drastically shrinking, providing opportunities for Chinese banks to carry out overseas M&A. Based on the overseas M&A status of Chinese commercial banks, this paper sums up the characteristics of the overseas M&A. Then taking a series of overseas M&A conducted by ICBC from 2006 to 2011 as an example, it analyzes the relationship between M&A and performance growth using grey incidence model. The test shows: there is a positive correlation between both overseas M&A and interest rate differential with performance growth of ICBC, and overseas M&A transactions role in promoting the performance growth is significantly higher than the interest rate differential.

• Strategy21
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• s.37
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• pp.104-143
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• 2015

China's new grand strategy, the "One Belt, One Road Initiative" (also Belt Road Initiative, or BRI) has two primary components: Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the "Silk Road Economic Belt" in September 2013 during a visit to Kazakhstan, and the "21^st Century Maritime Silk Route Economic Belt" in a speech to the Indonesian parliament the following month. The BRI is intended to supply China with energy and new markets, and also to integrate the countries of Central Asia, the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN), and the Indian Ocean Region - though not Northeast Asia - into the "Chinese Dream". The project will be supported by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), due to open in 2016 with 57 founding members from all around the world, and China has already promised US$ 50 billion in seed funding. China's vision includes networks of energy pipelines, railways, sea port facilities and logistics hubs; these will have obvious commercial benefits, but also huge geopolitical significance. China seems to have two distinct aims: externally, to restore its historical sphere of influence; and internally, to cope with income inequalities by creating middle-class jobs through enhanced trade and the broader development of its economy. In South Korea, opinion on the BRI is sharply polarized. Economic and industrial interests, including Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL), support South Korean involvement in the BRI and closer economic interactions with China. They see how the BRI fits nicely with President Park Geun-hye's Eurasia Initiative, and anticipate significant commercial benefits for South Korea from better connections to energy-rich Russia and the consumer markets of Europe and Central Asia. They welcome the prospect of reduced trade barriers between China and South Korea, and of improved transport infrastructure, and perceive the political risks as manageable. But some ardently pro-US pundits worry that the political risks of the BRI are too high. They cast doubt on the feasibility of implementing the BRI, and warn that although it has been portrayed primarily in economic terms, it actually reveals a crucial Chinese geopolitical strategy. They are fearful of China's growing regional dominance, and worried that the BRI is ultimately a means to supplant the prevailing US-led regional security structure and restore the Middle Kingdom order, with China as the only power that matters in the region. According to this view, once China has complete control of the regional logistics hubs and sea ports, this will severely limit the autonomy of China's neighbors, including South Korea, who will have to toe the Chinese line, both economically and politically, or risk their own peace and prosperity.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.43
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• pp.169-198
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• 2009

This paper sees some legal phases of the forfaiting transactions performed by using bills of exchange (drafts) or promissory notes. It focuses on the issues of the endorsement without recourse and the aval under the Korean statute for such negotiable instruments which is enacted by succeeding to the Convention Providing a Uniform Law For Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes (Geneva, 1930) of the League of Nations. This paper purposes to give basic legal guides for forfaiting participants in order for them to be able to prevent and solve some problems caused by lack of understanding for relevant rules of law. Forfaiting is a useful technic as it provides financing for international export businesses by enabling forfaiters to discount future payment obligations on non-recourse basis. It gives benefits to exporters by removing political, transfer and commercial risks of importers or their country. Also it protects exporters from the risks of the increase of interest rates and the fluctuation of exchange rate as well. In traditionally normal forfaiting transactions, exporter of goods generally takes promissory notes or accepted drafts from importers in payment for the price of goods. Further, when the exporter is not comfortable with the importer's credit or is not confident whether the importer will pay the accepted drafts or the promissory notes as they come due, the exporter nomally requires the importer to make the importer's bank (avalizer or guarantor) add an aval, which is made by the written expression of intention, the words of "per aval", and the guarantor's signature on the drafts or promissory notes. The exporter endorses without recourse to transfer the drafts or the promissory notes to the forfaiter, typically a bank, who purchases the drafts or the promissory notes without recourse.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.167-178
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to analyze the direct investment decision factors in the Kaesong Industrial Complex and Vietnam, and to contribute to the creation of domestic jobs and the revitalization of the inter-Korean economy. According to the analysis, most of the Kaesong Industrial Complex and Vietnamese investment companies are entering the complex for the purpose of utilizing cheap labor, cheap factory locations, sales/development of local markets, and bypass export production bases in third countries. This can be divided into production-efficient investors using differences in production price such as labor costs and market-oriented investors to sell and expand the local market, which seems to be consistent with global direct investment patterns such as Nike, Apple, and Amazon. However, even if the North Korea-U.S. denuclearization talks ease or lift sanctions, Vietnamese investors' willingness to invest in the North Korea has been most burdened by the possibility of closing special economic zones due to political risks. Last but not least, it is important to note that those willing to invest in North Korea are mostly smaller enterprises in textiles, sewing, footwear and leather industries-those that benefit from low-cost labor. Since their size is small, they need policy support in financing, especially in the early stages of their business. Even after they grow past the early stages, those without collateral would still need state guarantee letters to get financing. Thus, it is worth considering to use the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund to compensate commercial banks for bad loan loss or for low-interest loans for smaller SMEs. The interviews with SMEs found that red-tape is one of the biggest difficulties they face. Thus, it is recommended that a one-stop service agency should be established to cover all processes and issues related to inter-Korean economic cooperation to eliminate redundancy and expediate government support for SMEs.