New CEO at KRX

Chairman Lee Jung-hwan pledges to further globalize KRX and deregulate the stock market

Lee Jung-hwan, president of the management strategy division at the Korea Exchange (KRX), has been promoted to chairman and CEO of the KRX at a shareholders'meeting on March 21.
In his inaugural speech, the new CEO said he will steer the KRX to develop a next-generation system, improve the securities and KOSDAQ derivatives market, open the KOSDAQ prep school and set up the listing consulting group. He also pledged to manage the stock exchange with a focus on the development of the derivatives market and R&D investment globalization, propose the deregulation of the laws and regulations governing the stock market, reform of the governance structure of the KRX and the development of a financial town.
The new head of the KRX said the local bourse operator is working on measures to further expand the KOSDAQ, already the world's second largest tech-heavy market by trading value.
Lee went on to say that he will make it easier for companies to list their shares on the bourse by creating a special department for that purpose. The new CEO said during his first meeting with reporters since his promotion, "Many companies want to list their shares on the KOSDAQ, but many are having difficulty doing so because they don't understand the listing process."He said the KRX should create an organization responsible for advising companies that hope to be KOSDAQ-listed firms and that the KRX should reduce the cost of listing.
He said he will try to further the growth of the KOSDAQ, whose trading volume is second only to the U.S.' NASDAQ with daily trading volume reaching 650 million shares worth $2.6 billion in September 2007. He said everything is ready to list KRX shares on the KOSPI, but it should first be cleared with the financial authorities.
Lee, a former director of the International Finance Bureau of the Finance and Economy Ministry, joined the KRX in 2005.
The third quarter financial statement of the KRX showed an operating profit of 297.4 billion won and net profit of 159.2 billion won with a cash dividend of 1,700 won per share, a 78 percent increase over last year, bringing the total dividend payout to 32.7 billion won.
KOSDAQ stands for the Korea Securities Dealers Association's Automated Quotations and opened in 1987. It was merged with the KOSPI and KRX in January 2005.
Former KRX chairman Lee Young-tak said it is a huge celebratory occasion that the new chairman was selected among the KRX executives to make the transfer of management go smoothly and beautifully. According to Lee, the new personnel move is a departure from the past practice of the government naming a former bureaucrat to head the bourse in what is termed a "parachute personnel move."The new chairman is expected to see that all of the unfinished business of the former chairman, such as those affairs related to the merger process and new directions of the stock exchange, will now be completed since the new CEO is familiar with the issues.
The new chairman has been credited with wrapping up various issues during the merger process including the initial public offering of the stock exchange.
A native of Hapchon, Gyeongsang Province, he was once assigned to work for the World Bank as an economic consultant. nw

Chairman Lee Jung-hwan of the Korea Exchange.