By Kim Sung-jin
Staff Reporter

TriGem Computer, the nation’s second-largest PC maker, Wednesday filed a request for court receivership with the Suwon District Court.

If the request is accepted by the court, TriGem will be delisted from the Korean stock market 16 years after its listing in accordance with relevant regulations.

TriGem’s domestic operations swung to profits in the first quarter of this year from a chronic deficit trend, but it chose court receivership as the last-ditch effort for survival as it faced a serious liquidity crunch owing to a plunge in overseas PC sales.

The Korea Exchange (KRX) on Wednesday suspended transactions of TriGem’s shares.

``We are considering filing a provisional injunction with the district court to prevent our shares from being delisted from the bourse,’’ TriGem spokesman Bang Young-il said.

TriGem will be given a week to object to the proposed delisting of its shares from the bourse and if the computer maker has no objections, the KRX will remove the computer vendor’s shares from the stock market after a seven-day period for investors to dispose of their shareholdings.

If the cash-strapped computer maker objects to the delisting decision, the KRX will convene a committee meeting within 15 days and decide on whether to delist the company or not.

Local securities analysts attributed TriGem’s cash flow problem to an exorbitant venture investment spree, heavy reliance on low-end desktop PC original equipment manufacturing (OEM) for exports and losing the edge in price competitiveness in the global market against the flood of cheap Chinese brands.

According to the first-quarter balance sheet disclosed by TriGem last Monday, its debt amounted to 774.5 billion won as of the end of last March with its total assets standing at 97.6 billion won.

TriGem’s cash reserve also fell from some 6 billion won to 2.8 billion won. Due to worsening profitability of its overseas OEM and original design manufacturing (ODM) operations, TriGem posted 16.2 billion won net loss in 2004.

TriGem, established by Lee Yong-teh, honorary chairman and founder of the computer firm back in July 1980, is the oldest PC maker in Korea. It has pioneered Korea’s PC industry together with Samsung and LG.

The computer manufacturer has exerted multilateral efforts to normalize business by reducing its workforce, streamlining organizations and reorganizing its business units while reducing reliance on OEM and promoting its own brand.

TriGem is the second-largest computer brand in Korea after Samsung Electronics. The company boasts the world’s fifth-largest production capacity of 9.1 million computers a year.

Local small- and mid-sized PC makers are panicking in the wake of TriGem’s court receivership application and the demise of Hyunju Computer, the fourth-largest PC maker, last month. They seem to fear that they would follow in the footsteps of TriGem and Hyunju amid the influx of cheap computers made by Chinese and American PC vendors.

sjkim@koreatimes.co.kr