[THE INVESTOR] Dozens of business groups including Kakao and Celltrion will be excluded from being designated as conglomerates, as the government will raise the asset threshold for large companies that come under strict antitrust regulations.

The revised rule which highlights increasing the standard for designating a company as a conglomerate from the current 5 trillion won (US$4.56 billion) of total assets to 10 trillion won will go into effect from Sept. 30. 



When the asset threshold is raised to 10 trillion won, the number of business groups under the large conglomerate watch list that restricts equity investments and inter-affiliate loan guarantees will fall to 28 from the current 65.

A total of 25 private enterprises, including messenger app operator Kakao and bio-pharmaceutical firm Celltrion, and 12 public companies will be exempt from over 80 regulations imposed on such large companies.

In April, 2008, the watchdog revised the decree to raise the asset threshold from 2 trillion won to 5 trillion won, reducing the number of big companies on the watch list from 79 in 2008 to 48 in 2009.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)