[THE INVESTOR] Corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&As) by South Korean firms declined sharply in the first half of this year as local conglomerates remained reluctant to streamline their business, the antitrust watchdog said Sunday.

The value of reported M&As reached 13 trillion won (US$11.7 billion) in the January-June period, down from 39.4 trillion won a year earlier, according to the Fair Trade Commission (FTC).

The number of merger cases also dropped to 209 from 249 over the cited period.

The FTC said domestic companies remained lukewarm in concluding merger deals despite the nationwide corporate restructuring efforts.

There was only one merger deal that surpassed 1 trillion won in value in the first six months of the year -- Lotte Chemical Corp.'s takeover of a chemical unit of Samsung SDI Co., worth 2.8 trillion won.

On the other hand, massive M&A deals involving foreign companies stood at 63 cases in the six-month period, worth a combined 253 trillion won, up from 88.3 trillion won.

According to the South Korean antitrust law, all companies doing business in the country with 200 billion won in total asset or revenues are required to report their merger plan with a firm whose total asset or revenues tops 20 billion won to the FTC.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)