-- South Korea's bank deposit rates declined in March while borrowing costs also continued to decrease, the Bank of Korea said Tuesday.
The average interest rate on new deposits fell one basis point to 2.82% from the previous month, while rates on outstanding deposits also shed one basis point to 2%.
New loan rates declined six basis points from the previous month to 4.20%, and the average rate on outstanding loans was unchanged at 4.27% at the end of March.
Kone (KNEBV.HE) will merge with German peer TK Elevator in a 29.4-billion-euro cash-and-stock deal to create one of the biggest elevator and escalator companies globally, the companies said Wednesday.The Finnish elevator and escalator maker will purchase the entire issued share capital of Vertical Topco II, which holds all of TK Elevator's assets, from a consortium led by private equity firms Advent and Cinven. Under the planned combination, Kone will pay Advent and Cinven's jointly owned holding company, Vertical Topco I, 5 billion euros in cash and a maximum share consideration of 270 million newly issued Kone class B shares worth 15.2 billion euros.The combined group will be led by Kone President and Chief Executive Officer Philippe Delorme. Kone Chief Financial Officer Ilkka Hara and Chairman Antti Herlin will also continue in their roles at the merged entity.Kone said the combined group, which will be headquartered in Finland and have over 100,000 employees across 100 countries, would have generated annual sales of 20.5 billion euros in the last financial year.The deal is expected to complete in the second quarter of 2027, at the earliest, subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals."Our first impression is that the deal value looks somewhat above previous media suggestions (~EUR25bn). It is interesting to us that TKE is being valued ahead of Kone (which has an EV of EUR28.5bn, trades at 18.5x 2026 EV/EBITA), a company with a long track record of solid growth and operational execution," analysts at RBC Capital Markets said in a quick take note, with a negative sentiment on the transaction. "Deal economics look OK if giving full benefit for synergies, but there is obvious execution and potentially antitrust risk here. In a nutshell, we worry that the Kone equity case - industry-leading growth, strong sales execution and healthy margin expansion - will now, for the next two years or more, be subsumed by the TKE deal."Kone shares were down over 3% in Helsinki on Wednesday midday trade.
HD Hyundai Energy Solutions (KRX:322000) posted first-quarter net income of 22.3 billion won, rebounding from a net loss of 1.08 billion won a year earlier, according to a Wednesday filing with the Korea Exchange.The South Korean solar energy equipment supplier's sales jumped 88% year over year to 159.9 billion won from 85.3 billion won.Shares of HD Hyundai Energy Solutions jumped more than 9% at market close.