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Harbinger Capital Partners, a New York hedge fund headed by billionaire Philip Falcone, has selected Nokia Siemens Networks in a $7 billion, eight-year deal to build and operate a planned nationwide 4G wireless network.

Harbinger unveiled the agreement Tuesday morning to coincide with its launch of LightSquared, a vast and ambitious wireless broadband venture that incorporates Reston-based satellite firm SkyTerra Communications Inc., which Harbinger acquired earlier this year. All of Skyterra's employees will now work under the LightSquared banner, including three top executives who will fill equivalent leadership roles.

LightSquared's blueprint, which involves launching two satellites and building about 40,000 terrestrial stations, is scheduled to provide high-capacity mobile broadband coverage to at least 260 million people by the end of 2015. The company envisions offering the capacity wholesale-only to retailers, cable operators, wireless service providers and other customers, who would then provide the service under their own brand.

LightSquared, which controls 59 megahertz of wireless spectrum, would offer a terrestrial-only plan, a satellite-only plan, or a combination of both, said spokesman Tom Surface.

The deal with Nokia Siemens advances what critics have framed as a wealthy hedge fund manager¹s high-wire bid to enter the wireless business. Falcone is hoping to capitalize on the nation's ballooning demand for mobile broadband capacity — fueled by the proliferation of smart phones — to operate alongside giants like Verizon and AT&T. And like those two companies, Harbinger is building the 4G network using long-term evolution (LTE) technology instead the rival format WiMAX.

The Federal Communications Commission signed off on Skyterra's acquisition in March. The company is planning to send up two satellites by 2011 to replace existing ones already in orbit, contracting with Reston-based International Launch Services to carry out the first launch at Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Initially planned for August, that launch has been delayed until late 2010 or early 2011 because of a technical issue with the Skyterra1 satellite, Surface said. He said that delay wouldn't affect the overall time line for the wireless network rollout, which is scheduled to open next year in two trials markets: Denver and Phoenix.

Harbinger also announced $1.75 billion in new debt and equity financing for LightSquared on top of the $2.9 billion already invested by Harbinger and its affiliates.

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As lawmakers began the final push Thursday on a comprehensive Wall Street reform bill, lobbyists also made their final push — in congressional hallways, on BlackBerrys and cell phones, and at restaurants and bars near Capitol Hill.

On Thursday, some 40 lawmakers gathered in a House committee room to give speeches and kick off a marathon, two-to-three week session of deal-making on key differences buried in the bills.

Wall Street reform bills, passed by the Senate in May and the House last December, aim to curb risk taking, protect consumers and prevent financial firms from getting too big to fail. But the chambers take different roads toward achieving those goals.

Next Tuesday, lawmakers will start hashing out specific policy differences in meetings that are open to the public and being broadcast on C-SPAN and on the House Financial Services Committee Website.

"This is going to be a very open process," said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who was elected to run the joint committee encompassing negotiators. "Nothing will be put into this final bill that is not advanced, openly debated, subject to amendment by the conference process and voted on."

Yet, the conversations that go on outside the committee room spotlights are where much of the actual wrangling and arm-twisting goes on, lobbyists and congressional experts say.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., complained Thursday that Republicans have already been shut out of some decisions made behind closed doors, such as the shaping of first raw draft to be considered. That draft mostly reflects the Senate bill with some "House additions," according to Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who runs the Senate Banking panel.

"I believe if we continue to proceed in this matter, however, any further assertions of openness and transparency will be a fiction, and meetings like this one will only serve as political theater," said Shelby, the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee.

Here are examples of the kind of lobbying that happens outside the committee room:

• In late May, JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) chief executive Jamie Dimon made calls to a couple of lawmakers expected to be named to the conference panel negotiating differences, according to aides. Dimon was concerned, among other things, about a provision that would force banks to spin off their swaps desks. (JPMorgan Chase did not return requests for comment.)
• More than 1,000 credit union officials from 30 states hit the Hill’s hallways on Wednesday and Thursday. They’re asking lawmakers to kill a provision that would make banks and credit unions more responsible for the swipe fees on debit cards that retailers now pay.
• Lobbyists for some financial firms are expected to be among those paying $1,000 a ticket to attend a fundraiser Thursday night featuring access to congressional staffers of top Democratic leaders, as part of a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fundraiser taking place at a downtown Washington hotel bar. Republicans have held similar events in the past online payday advance.

Lobbying

"The lobbying community is not done with its work. And they are very, very focused on the conference process, and we’ll be fighting any attempt to weaken the bills," said Assistant Treasury Secretary Michael Barr in a briefing with reporters two weeks ago. "There’s still plenty of fight left in the process."

Since January 2009, financial service firms have spent $591 million lobbying Congress, which includes money spent on the health care reform bill as well as the Wall Street reform bills, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group.

Nearly every major Wall Street bank has shelled out money for lobbying, including Goldman Sachs, which has spent $3.9 million, and Bank of America, which spent $4.6 million. Smaller banks have also lobbied through banking groups. The American Bankers Association has spent $11.3 million since January 2009 and the Independent Community Bankers Association has spent $5.8 million.

Many of the lobbyists have connections to those they’re lobbying. More than 1,400 of the financial service sector lobbyists working on Wall Street reform worked for lawmakers and federal agencies they’re now lobbying, according to a joint analysis of federal disclosure records and other data released by the watchdog groups Public Citizen and the Center for Responsive Politics.

Campaign finance

Another way that industries can flex their muscle is by making campaign contributions to lawmakers. Summer is the high season for fundraising, especially in an congressional election year.

Since 1989, financial, real estate and insurance firms have contributed more than $112 million to the Democrats and Republicans named to the conference committee, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., tops the list with $17.5 million, followed by Dodd at $15.1 million and Shelby at more than $7.5 million, the center reports.

"Campaign contributions may not prove to be an ultimate, deciding factor in how these lawmakers operate. But money buys access," said Dave Levinthal, spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics. "It’s awfully difficult as a member of Congress to say ‘No’ to a longtime Wall Street campaign contributor who wants to bend your ear or twist your arm at this critical juncture."

And more money will roll in while negotiations are going on. Lawmakers on the conference committee with scheduled fundraisers include Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Ohio, and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, according to a database of invitations compiled by the watchdog group Sunlight Foundation.

Frank was also scheduled to have one Thursday morning, but it was postponed.

The next meeting of the committee is scheduled for 11 a.m. ET on Tuesday. 

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San Antonio’s residential real estate market may have suffered a few bumps and scrapes over the past year. However, there were still individual agents who fared well in the home-sales market.

The San Antonio Business Journal produced a listing of the Top 50 Individual Real Estate Agents, the Top 25 Team Leaders and Top Farm and Ranch Agents in the 2010 Executive Home Guide.

Overall, home sales were down for 2009; yet some agents saw their sales rise. Many of the agents interviews indicated that sales in recent months have been on the upswing, indicating that a housing recovery may have begun no fax cash loans.

The Business Journal created a database whereby readers can search for the top agents in San Antonio’s real estate market. To access this user-friendlym searchable database on the Top 50 Individual Real Estate Agents, the Top 25 Team Leaders and Top Farm and Ranch Agents, please go to this link.

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Japan’s economy expanded less than initially estimated in the fourth quarter as companies pared spending and stockpiles as deflation deepened.

Gross domestic product rose at an annual 3.8 percent pace, slower than the 4.6 percent reported in preliminary figures last month, the Cabinet Office said today in Tokyo. The GDP deflator, a gauge of price trends, fell a record 2.8 percent.

The report suggests business spending remains the weak link of an economic recovery that has begun to spread from exporters to households. Renewed demand in Asia is helping Japanese companies such as Canon Inc. and Honda Motor Co., which may minimize an economic slowdown in the coming months as government stimulus measures fade.

“A rebound in capital investment is key for Japan’s economy to regain momentum,” said Mari Iwashita, chief market economist at Nikko Cordial Securities Inc. in Tokyo. “While declines in investment are coming to a halt, it’s hard to tell when companies will start to beef up spending again.”

The yen traded at 90.46 per dollar at 9:47 a.m. in Tokyo from 90.40 before the report. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 0.7 percent.

The median estimate of 29 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for 4 percent growth on an annualized basis. The economy grew 0.9 percent in the fourth quarter from the previous three months, slower than the 1.1 percent first reported.

‘Receded Slightly’

“Concerns about a double-dip recession have receded slightly,” Keisuke Tsumura, a parliamentary secretary at the Cabinet Office, told reporters in Tokyo. “There are budding signs for self-sustained recovery.”

Private inventory shaved 0.1 percentage point from growth, after the initial report showed it added to GDP, the main reason for today’s revision. Automakers may have responded to higher demand by paring stockpiles, Tsumura said. Capital spending rose 0.9 percent in the three months through December from the previous quarter, compared with a 1 percent increase estimated last month.

About a third of factory capacity is sitting idle and falling prices are squeezing profit margins, prompting companies such as Sony Corp. to cut costs to protect their earnings. Sony last month narrowed its forecast for a net loss, saying it is approaching its target of trimming 330 billion yen ($3.7 billion) in costs by eliminating jobs and shutting factories.

Providing Incentives

The government has been providing incentives to buy energy- efficient cars and home appliances. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama unveiled a 7.2 trillion yen stimulus package in December. Consumer spending, which makes up about 60 percent of the economy, climbed 0 free credit report and score.7 percent, unchanged from the initial report, the government said today.

An increase in household outlays may not last as government stimulus measures fade and a shortfall in demand keeps suppressing prices, said Hiroshi Watanabe, a senior economist at Daiwa Institute of Research in Tokyo. “The stimulus program gives a one-shot boost to the economy, but it won’t substantially increase consumer spending,” he said.

Finance Minister Naoto Kan last week renewed calls for the Bank of Japan to help arrest deflation, saying he hopes prices will rise this year. Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Hirohide Yamaguchi said last month that prices may not be improving as quickly as he had expected.

The drop in the GDP deflator, the broadest measure of prices in the economy, was the largest since comparable data were made available in 1955. The government initially reported a 3 percent decline in the gauge.

‘Worst-Case Scenario’

“The deflator number really is terrible at the moment,” said Richard Jerram, chief economist at Macquarie Securities Ltd. in Tokyo. “The worst-case scenario is that if you never get out of deflation, you’re running an economy with interest rates that are persistently too high, which damages growth and also makes it impossible to stabilize public finances.”

The government’s options to combat falling prices have been limited by its swelling debt burden, the largest in the industrialized world. Kan said yesterday maintaining fiscal discipline is a significant challenge for policy makers. The central bank has kept the benchmark interest rate at 0.1 percent since December 2008.

Still, some companies are benefiting from rebounding demand in Asia, particularly China, the world’s fastest-growing major economy and Japan’s biggest overseas market. Canon, the world’s biggest camera maker, forecasts sales volume will rise 10 percent in China this year, Masaya Maeda, director of the company, said this week. Honda Motor’s sales in China rose 40 percent in February from a year earlier.

Exports increased 5 percent from the previous quarter, unchanged from the preliminary figures. Net exports, or shipments minus imports, added 0.5 percentage point to growth, the same as last month’s reading.

Some reports for January indicate the export revival is filtering to workers. The unemployment rate dropped to a 10- month low of 4.9 percent and wages climbed for the first time in 20 months.

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There was a time when Sarah Truckey had a close relationship with her blog. The St. Louis-based freelance writer visited it every couple of days, sharing stories and thoughts with anyone willing to read them.

But today, the intervals between visits are growing longer as Truckey, 25, increasingly turns to social networking site Twitter to talk to the world. She likes the way Twitter limits entries to 140 characters, forcing her to keep those missives short.

"The blog posts wouldn’t necessarily get me in trouble. But I would end up revealing more than I should," Truckey said.

While not ready to abandon the blog altogether, Truckey does represent a growing trend in the world of blogging. Young people just aren’t as interested in them as they once were. And it’s yet another example of the way rapid changes in technology — and the way we use it — can transform you from trendy to dinosaur seemingly overnight.

MySpace? Out. Facebook? In. Using a cell phone for phone calls? Out. Using it to send a text message? In. E-mail? Outside of scammers and spammers, does anyone use it?

OK, there’s a bit of hyperbole there. But it’s clear we live in a world where our ways of communicating are changing so fast that it’s virtually impossible, particularly for older adults, to stay current.

And certainly there are times when keeping up can be critical. As the parent of virtually every cell phone-toting teenager or young adult knows, you learn to text if you want to keep in touch.

Still, there’s no reason to obsess over every new communication development, said Dean Terry, director of emerging media at the University of Texas at Dallas. Some basic familiarity with social networking and texting may be all you need to get by. It’s not as if the old ways will just die out.

"Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t keep up with everything," Terry said. "We still have radio. We still have plays. And we still have novels."

In so many ways, it is the nation’s army of teenagers and young adults that’s deciding for the rest of us what’s cool and what’s not. Those decisions can, and often do, change quite quickly.

"Adults are always playing catch-up. And unfortunately, when we get there, (teens) may have already moved on," said Gary Rudman, a California-based market researcher who specializes in teens.

Just look at what’s happened to blogging, an area that’s still growing in popularity with older Americans, just as it’s losing steam with the younger set.

The percentage of older adults — those over the age of 29 — who say they maintain a blog has increased from 7 percent to 11 percent since December 2007, according to a recent report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Meanwhile the ranks of bloggers in the 18-29 age group fell from 24 percent to 15 percent during the same time frame quick payday loans.

The drop has been even greater among teen bloggers. In 2006, 28 percent of online teens said they blogged. Only 14 percent say the same thing today, according to Pew.

Social networking experts cite some pretty simple reasons for the decline of young bloggers.

Some suggest that it’s tied, at least partly, to the decline in popularity of My- Space, the one-time king of social networking. In recent years, social networkers have made a decided shift to Facebook, which puts more emphasis on short status updates and less emphasis on blogging.

"Because of what each site offers, that really changes what people do," said Amanda Lenhart, a senior research specialist with Pew.

Others say blogging simply doesn’t match well with the preferred communication style of young people, who like quick exchanges via text message and Facebook status updates. Some even suggest that young people might have skipped blogs altogether if they had arrived at the same time texting was taking off. Many young people just don’t have time in their lives for blogs.

"We used to think of blogs as short little blips of commentary. But now they seem very long," said Terry, from the University of Texas. "If you are updating your Facebook or Twitter all day, then in some ways you’ve gotten it all out. You’ve said everything you wanted to say."

Some attribute the decline of blogging and MySpace — and anything else being abandoned by young people — to the desire of teens and young adults trying to carve out their own space.

Rarely are they happy to see that space infiltrated by parents and grandparents.

"As soon as it becomes too popular, they want to move on to something else," said Kathryn Montgomery, a professor of communication at American University in Washington.

Not everyone buys that.

"That’s been the routine theory about why MySpace lost ground to Facebook," said Steve Jones, a professor of communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "But I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. A lot of adults are using Facebook now. And I don’t see younger people leaving in droves."

And really, it’s not necessarily the end of the world even if the youngsters do run off to greener pastures.

Rebecca Hanes, 36, of St. Louis, has been blogging for five years. She actually has a pair of blogs, including one she describes as "a big ol’ bowl of soup" in terms of content.

Hanes shrugged off the news that young bloggers have been dropping left and right. She says she has no plans to abandon her own little slice of cyberspace: "As far as I’m concerned, it’s probably something I’ll always have."

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Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Wednesday that owners of Toyotas affected by the recall should bring their cars to a dealer.

"My advice is if you have one of these vehicles, if you have a doubt, take it to Toyota today," LaHood told reporters after a hearing on Capitol Hill.

Earlier, LaHood had told a House committee that Toyota owners should "stop driving" and bring affected cars back to the company. He later referred to that as a "misstatement."

The Transportation agency also released a statement advising owners "to contact their local dealerships to arrange for fixes as soon as possible."

"We appreciate Secretary LaHood’s clarification of his remarks today about Toyota’s recall for sticking accelerator pedals," Toyota said in a statement. "We want to make sure our customers understand that this situation is rare and generally does not occur suddenly."

The automaker said if Toyota owners notice a problem, they should contact their dealerships immediately. But if a car is not experiencing pedal issues, Toyota said it is confident the vehicle is safe to drive.

Toyota officials announced on Monday they had found a solution that involved reinforcing the pedal assembly with a part that is being rushed to dealerships.

The problem, however, is that drivers are not likely to get a quick fix. Toyota told dealers in a letter on Tuesday that "parts and technical instructions will begin arriving this week for you to begin initiating repairs."

The confusion has worried Toyota owners like Maria Ciresi, 75, of Smithtown, N.Y.

"I’m deadly afraid to use it," said Ciresi, referring to the new car she bought in November that has only 300 miles on it.

She said she contacted two of her local Toyota dealerships, but was told that they "don’t know when" they would be able to fix her car.

"You have to be notified first by mail," she said.

Ciresi said she contacted Toyota directly, and was told to "drive the car, and if anything happens, put it in neutral."

Meanwhile, Ciresi said she’s paying $190 a month for insurance and $263 a month on car payments for a vehicle she doesn’t dare use.

LaHood also acknowledged that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating Toyotas not just for problems with gas pedals, but for problems with the electrical systems, as well.

"We will also be investigating the electronic components that are in these cars and if they’re not safe, we’ll have Toyota take a look at that," LaHood said.

He said that Toyota has been cooperative in the investigations.

Toyota has recalled millions of vehicles in recent weeks due to problems with sticking gas pedals that cause the vehicles to accelerate out of control and later halted the sale of the eight vehicles involved in the recall.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified the model-make of a car. 

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China property sales jumped 75.5 percent to 4.4 trillion yuan ($644 billion) last year, led by the eastern cities of Zhejiang and Shanghai, as record new loans boosted buying.

The sales data follows last week’s announcement that December property prices rose 7.8 percent, the fastest pace in 18 months, adding urgency to government efforts to rein in speculation. China this month reimposed a sales tax on homes sold within five years of their purchase while the country’s cabinet on Jan. 10 urged strict application of a 40 percent down-payment requirement for second homes. The measures are likely to weigh on first-quarter sales, economist Lu Ting said.

‘We will see very bad transaction numbers, even though prices may not fall that much as the supply of new homes is still low,” Lu, a Hong Kong-based economist at Bank of America- Merrill Lynch, said by phone today. Today’s data more accurately reflect last year’s gain in asset values, he said

By floor area, sales rose 42 percent from 2008 to 937 million square meters (10 billion square feet), the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement on its Web site today. That compares with a 53 percent gain between January and November, when sales value advanced 86.8 percent. December’s declining sales growth reflects the seasonally slow winter period, Lu said.

The December figure for property prices probably understated the size of the increase, the economist said. “In reality, the inflation in asset prices may be between 20 percent and 30 percent, and that is way too high for the policy- makers,” Lu said.

Shanghai Gain

Zhejiang topped the increase in sales value, with a 130 percent gain, the statistics bureau said today. In Shanghai, the gain was 126 percent.

Investment in property development in 2009 rose 16.1 percent to 3.62 trillion yuan, the statistics bureau said. That was less than the 17.8 percent gain in the first 11 months. Chinese banks extended a record 9.59 trillion yuan of new loans last year.

To counter property speculation, China is tightening lending. Chinese banks from Jan. 18 raised the share of deposits they must set aside as reserves, as the government seeks to rein in liquidity from record lending without stalling a recovery. China is targeting 8 percent growth this year, Industry Minister Li Yizhong said Dec. 21.

Developers Sales Surge

Shanghai Shimao Co., the local unit of billionaire Xu Rongmao’s developer Shimao Holdings Holdings Ltd., said today that 2009 profit may quadruple, partly due to higher sales from additional commercial property projects.

Earlier this month, some of China’s biggest developers said 2009 sales increased significantly.

China Overseas Land & Investment Ltd., owned by the country’s construction ministry, said property sales rose 80 percent to HK$47.8 billion. Evergrande Real Estate Group Ltd., China’s third-biggest developer by market value, said Jan. 5 that contracted sales jumped fivefold to 30.3 billion yuan.

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Mark Tade, manager of employee relations for U.S. Steel’s Granite City Works, was elected as this year’s president of the Leadership Council Southwestern Illinois, a key economic development organization in the Metro East area.

Members also chose four other council officers for one-year terms:

— Council chairman, Vaughn Vandegrift, chancellor of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

— Council vice president, Gerry Schuetzenhofer, president of Coldwell Banker Brown Realtors
— Secretary, Richard Sauget Sr short term personal loan., president of East County Enterprises

— Treasurer, Dale Stewart, executive secretary/treasurer of the Southwestern Illinois Building and Construction Trades Council

The Leadership Council was organized to attract and retain jobs and stimulate capital investment in the Metro East area.

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IMPERIAL — John V. Price won’t sell you a house. But he’ll sell you a place to build your dream home.

Price, 62, owns Price Acreage LLC, a family-operated business that has been developing semi-rural and suburban home sites in Jefferson and St. Francois counties.

The company subdivides large tracts of wooded land, extends roads and utilities to the rural site, and then sells individual plots of one to six acres each to buyers who later contract with their own homebuilders.

"The freedom to build what they want when they want to build" attracts buyers, Price said. "The lots are big, and different house styles in that environment don’t clash."

He first got into the real estate business with his father, Homer V. Price, who developed subdivisions and home sites in Jefferson County for nearly 50 years before his death in 2004. Among Homer Price’s developments was Olympian Village during the 1960s. After this father’s death, John Price founded Price Acreage.

John Price’s latest project is the Hollows at Frisco Hill subdivision in the Imperial area.

He said the 48 large, heavily wooded lots at the Hollows were particularly attractive because the development is less than 15 minutes from south St. Louis County.

The access roads and utilities are now in place, and the first lots are being sold.

Five deals have closed on the lots since they went on the market early in December, Price said. He said he expected construction of the first houses in the development to start this month, weather permitting.

"It’s a great, great location," he said. "It’s extremely convenient to everything."

The 90-acre development is just southwest of the intersection of Frisco Hill Road and Ambrose Crossing, along the new Frisco Hollows Road that serves the site.

The lots sell for about $69,000 to more than $140,000 each, depending on the size. The average cost of a lot is about $80,000.

Price said that was a good deal — coupled with housing construction costs of $200,000 or so — for a big house on a big lot near the city.

The Hollows does have some restrictions on construction. Houses must have a minimum of 2,000 square feet of floor space and garages that hold at least two cars.

A large range of home styles is allowed, but also within some restrictions on building materials and designs.

Eventually, a property committee of at least three Hollows property owners will be formed to maintain the subdivision roads. The committee also will collect subdivision assessments to be established for community expenditures, such as electric bills for street lights, common ground maintenance, snow removal and road repairs, Price said.

So far, most of the buyers and prospective buyers he’s worked with already live in the Imperial area, Price said. They know about the convenience of the area and simply want to move up to nicer, more private homes at a reasonable cost, he said.

"Our customers are generally pretty sophisticated, and they know what lots cost here and elsewhere," Price said.

The developers had tried to maintain the natural woods as much as possible in subdividing the site and building access roads, said Jeff Price, 27, who works with his father on the Hollows.

"We build to the land, not through the land," he said. "We strive for quality over quantity."

Jeff Price said the trees that did have to be removed for the development were ground into mulch for use by tract buyers.

"On many construction projects, that would have got hauled off and just thrown away," he said.

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South Korean banks may become more willing to finance acquisitions next year as the economy rebounds, said Morgan Stanley Executive Director Peter Chang.

Lenders may “begin to become more open over the next year on providing acquisition financing for deals,” Chang, 32, who oversees Morgan Stanley’s mergers and acquisitions advisory in South Korea, said in an interview in Seoul yesterday. “Improvements in the availability of financing will also help drive the overall level of M&A activity.”

South Korea’s benchmark stock index has jumped 47 percent this year as Asia’s fourth-largest economy leads a regional rebound from the deepest recession since the Great Depression. The economic recovery will fuel overseas takeovers by South Korean companies, Chang said.

“Korea’s economy has held up very well relative to other countries during the financial crisis,” he said. “We think that will create more opportunities for outbound M&A.”

South Korea’s growth will outpace all except China and India among the world’s 15 largest economies over the next two years, according to the International Monetary Fund. The average capital-adequacy ratio at the country’s 18 banks rose to 14.07 percent at the end of September, the highest since at least 2003, the Financial Supervisory Services said Nov. 25.

The ratio, which measures banks’ capital reserves against assets at risk, had fallen to as low as 10.86 percent a year earlier, forcing the government to set up a 20 trillion won ($17 billion) fund to replenish their capital.

Daewoo, Hynix

Morgan Stanley was the top adviser in mergers involving Korean companies this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The New York-based company advised Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co. on its 451.6 million euro ($644 million) acquisition of Skoda Power AS of the Czech Republic, the South Korean company’s largest overseas takeover.

Not all companies expected to be up for sale next year will find buyers, Chang said. Korea Development Bank plans to select advisers this month for the sale of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., the world’s second-biggest shipbuilder. Hynix Semiconductor Inc. creditors are accepting letters of intent from potential bidders until Jan. 29.

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission said Dec. 16 the government will focus on selling control of Daewoo Shipbuilding, Hynix, Daewoo International Corp. and Daewoo Electronics Corp. next year.

“It remains to be seen if these deals can all be completed over the coming year,” Chang said. “Particularly for larger assets, there are typically only a limited number of parties who are logical, viable acquirers.”

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