South Korea’s soon-to-be-merged fixed-line and mobile operator KT says it is eyeing expansion into China and Japan, the latter with local partner NTT DoCoMo. “It would be difficult [to enter China] but we still see a chance,” KT CEO Lee Suk-chae told reporters this week, reports Dow Jones Newswires. Last month, fixed-line incumbent KT was given the green light by local regulators to merge with the country’s second-largest mobile operator, KT Freetel. NTT DoCoMo owns a 10.7 percent stake in KT Freetel and is currently undergoing a share swap that could see it own as much as 5 percent of the newly-merged company, the highest shareholding allowed in a South Korean company by a foreign firm.

Lee said he expects final approval for the deal before a shareholders’ meeting scheduled for 27 March and said he was confident that the government would not impose tough conditions on the merger, which rivals have claimed could reduce competition in the market. The merger will create South Korea’s largest telecoms firm, controlling 90 percent of the fixed-line market and 32 percent of mobile. Lee added that the new operator would focus on bundled fixed-line and mobile services longer term but that cost cutting was a more immediate goal. KT said last month that it aims to cut its labour costs by KRW100 billion (US$66 million) a year over the next five years.