On April 4, 2000, at a board of directors' meeting, CEO Anatoly Chubais, Russia's legendary reformer, announced his plan to break up the Russian joint stock company Unified Energy System (UES). The plan envisioned breaking up the giant energy monopoly along two lines of business: electricity transmissions and generation and sales. His proposal met a fierce storm of opposition from foreign minority shareholders of UES as well as from Boris Fedorov, a fellow reformer in the early to mid-1990s. This case examines the dynamics of implementing structural reforms in a highly uncertain environment.
In December 1999, Newbridge Capital, an equity investment fund based in San Francisco, successfully negotiated with the Korean government to acquire a controlling interest in Korea First Bank. It was the first time a foreign financial institution acquired a Korean Bank. The negotiation was difficult and protracted, and the two sides tried hard to reach an agreement that would preserve the interests of both. The case examines the conditions and the motivations underlying one of the most significant acquisition deals in the Korean economy.