– Sales proceeds, to be used for the parent company’s financial structure improvement and debt-to-equity ratio reduction.
Hyundai Electronics (Kim Young-hwan, CEO) will export a large volume of IC cards that have greater information storage capacity and more improved security than magnetic cards. HEI announced that its contract will provide 18 million units of IC cards from this August to the end of this year to Taiwan Telecom as part of 1999 IC Telephone Card Project. HEI has completed the development of electronic purse IC card for People’s Bank of China and is now in the process of seeking certification. A contract was concluded with the Bank; 3.5million units will be supplied by the end of 1999; 5million units supplied from Oct. 2000 to Oct. 2001; later, a total of 42million units by 2004 on a yearly basis (with shipment installment being 8million, 10million and 15million￠®¦). These orders were the results of HEI’s large investments in the development and sales operation of IC cards as part of its efforts to develop high-tech industry for the 21st century. This success is expected to have a great effect on the IC card industry at home and abroad. In addition, HEI will soon introduce combination IC card that will realize an internationally-integrated card and integrated circuit (IC) to be used in electronic signature or payment system for electronic commerce. HEI is expected to lead the industry in distributing IC cards at home and abroad. HEI, in a partnership with Hyundai ST Co., Ltd. (Nam Il Woo, CEO), was chosen to be an IC card supplier of VISA Yoido pilot project. As a result, supply contracts with Korea Exchange Credit Card and Shinhan Bank were concluded, and contracts with BC Card and Kookmin Card are underway. Hyundai ST Co., Ltd. is an employee stock ownership company that separated from Hyundai Electronics in June 1998. In Feb. 1999, it was chosen as an exemplary venture enterprise by Small & Medium Business Administration. Currently, it is the nation’s sole IC card developer and supplier. The IC card market is expected to expand from next year with the demand reaching 2.3 billion units in 2003. In the near future, the world’s major credit card companies are expected to replace existing magnetic cards with IC cards.
