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For you and other friends, I would like to explain the meaning of "Workout" and "Big-Deal". These terms must be broken English but they are used in Korea. They are both business procedures in Korea.
As you may know, the symptoms of recession are occurring all over the world. Asia has been more seriously affected compared with other continents. In particular, Thailand, Indonesia and S.Korea have suffered turmoil temporarily.
In the case of Korea, the value of the currency was decreased and the funds of foreigners left the country. Therefore we needed the help of the IMF (International Monetary Fund).
The effects of several factors including that above has caused the followings serious problems:
(1) The flow of money has been bad
(2) There has been high interest
(3) There has been early requirement of banks for debt
Many companies have been bankrupted by the above factors. These bankrupted companies fall into two categories. One kind of company originally was fundamentally weak, so it came to bankruptcy; and the other kind is one in which the bankruptcy was caused by temporary reasons such as the lack of short-term money.
Only in the latter case are the companies allowed to apply for "Workout" and are accepted by lenders (mainly banks). In other words, to give a chance to a company which can survive by itself or which is later expected to become prosperous is called a "workout".
Have you heard about the "Big-Deal"? It's a widely used word in Korea. It means that a conglomerate selects one company which is prosperous or will be famous soon and exchanges another company which is not related to their conglomerate with a similar company selected from the holdings of the other conglomerate. Of course, in such a case, the turnover and debt, etc. are the same as or close to each other.
Actually a conglomerate in Korea is like the dinosaur which disappeared in ancient time. The fear of extinction influences the decision. But a Big-Deal is not welcomed by labor who have worked for companies not selected in the exchange, because they might be laid off against their will.
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