One day before a roughly $370 million GDR was originally due to price, the Korean government formally confirmed that it is has delayed the final tranche of its privatization of Korea Tobacco Ginseng KTG. The market had been expecting the news for over a week after the four leads - Goldman Sachs, UBS Warburg, Dongwon and Hyundai Securities - failed to begin roadshows on July 1 as originally scheduled.
There have been varying opinions about the absolute share price level international investors were willing to accept for the 14% divestment, but all agree that the delay makes sense given market volatility.
As one observer comments, The feedback we got from investors tended to...
