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SK Shieldus CEO Park Jin-hyo (Courtesy of Yonhap News)South Korean leading security services provider SK Shieldus Co. has scrapped its plan to go public this month. Its bookbuilding gained the tepid interest of investors as Federal Reserve’s interest hike chilled market sentiment and the offering price band was set higher than investors’ expectations. The company, owned by SK Square, a spin-off from telecommunication giant SK Telecom, said it submitted a delisting notice to Korea&rsq...

Doosan Enerbility changed the company from Doosan Heavy Industries in March 2022, combining the words "energy" and "sustainability"South Korea's major power plant builder Doosan Enerbility Co. has significantly improved its financial health, with the debt-to-equity ratio tumbling to its lowest level in 19 years.The key unit of Doosan Group turned to the black in eight years in 2021, and its order backlog increased to the level equivalent to two years and five months of workload, or 13.6 trillion...

LG receives ISO 26262 certification for its automotive chip development processLG Electronics Inc., a leading South Korean home appliance maker, has received ISO certification for its automotive chip development process, including the design and safety verification of key components for vehicles.LG said on Monday it recently received ISO 26262 from TUV Rheinland, an authorized German testing and certification agency.The certification is an international standard for automotive safety established...

Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook unveils iPhone 13 in September 2021South Korea's major chip, display and other electronic components makers have at least one thing in common: they all claim Apple Inc. as a key customer.The iPhone maker sources NAND flash memory from Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. For camera lenses and multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) used to store and supply electricity, Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co. is a key supplier for the iPhone maker.Camera modules installed on the ...

IonQ co-founders Kim Jungsang (left) and Chris MonroeIonQ Inc., a US-listed quantum computing firm, has become a new target of Scorpion Capital focusing on short selling and took a hit from the US hedge fund’s harsh comments in its 183-page investigative report on the startup earlier this week.Calling IonQ’s claim that it has the world’s most powerful quantum computer “a hoax” and a “quantum Ponzi scheme,” Scorpion said in the report on May 3 that such a...

IonQ co-founders Kim Jungsang (left) and Chris MonroeIonQ Inc., a US-listed quantum computing firm, has become a new target of Scorpion Capital focusing on short selling and took a hit from the US hedge fund’s harsh comments in its 183-page investigative report on the startup earlier this week.Calling IonQ’s claim that it has the world’s most powerful quantum computer “a hoax” and a “quantum Ponzi scheme,” Scorpion said in the report on May 3 that such a...

The history of change in Bekseju's containers since its launch in 1992South Korea's traditional winemaker Kook Soon Dang Co. has sold a total of 700 million bottles of its flagship Bekseju since its launch in 1992 as it became a popular drink suitable for Korean dinners.The cumulative number is equivalent to the average daily sales of 64,000 bottles over the course of 30 years both at home and abroad, the company said on Tuesday.Bekseju means a healthy rice wine to be enjoyed for a long time unt...

Genesis was the only brand among major carmakers that posted sales growth in AprilHyundai Motor Co. said on Wednesday its premium Genesis brand saw its US car sales considerably grow in April when all other major carmakers reported a significant drop amid a continued automotive chip shortage.The company sold 5,039 Genesis cars in the US market last month, up 53% from 3,294 units in the year-earlier period and posting its 17th consecutive month of on-year growth.The growth contrasts with falling ...

Cargoes are loaded on Korean Air’s airplane (Courtesy of Incheon International Airport Corp)Korean Air Lines Co., the country’s top carrier, reported a record quarterly operating profit on the strong cargo business while its smaller domestic rival Asiana Airlines Inc. was likely to enjoy a similar booster for earnings.That compared with local budget airlines, which were expected to keep suffering losses due to their heavy reliance on passenger flights. Those low-cost carriers (LCCs) ...

Kakao wnats to change the way KakaoTalk is operatedSouth Korea’s leading online platform operator Kakao Corp. plans to drastically change the way KakaoTalk, the country’s top mobile messenger app, is operated to expand its user base after its first-quarter earnings missed market forecasts.Kakao Chief Executive Namkoong Whon said during a conference call with analysts on its first-quarter earnings on Wednesday that KakaoTalk’s main features won’t be just limited to chattin...

Shinsegae Group's soju products (Courtesy of Shinsegae)South Korea’s Shinsegae L&B Co. is set to resume its distilled spirit soju business as early as the end of May, aiming for exports to some Southeast Asian countries. The liquor and beverage unit of Shinsegae Group will reoperate its fruit-flavored soju manufacturing plant on Jeju Island, which has been suspended since March 2021.Shinsegae Group, the retail giant in Korea, founded Shinsegae L&B in 2008 and entered the alcoholic ...

Lotte Duty Free Shop in SydneySouth Korea's Lotte Duty Free Co. is slated to open a downtown store in Sydney on May 5, after Australia reopened its international border to foreign visitors after nearly two years.The world's No. 2 duty-free operator said on Tuesday that the new store will be the first addition to its shop network since it launched a store in Singapore Changi Airport in June 2020.The new downtown store is expected to post over 1 trillion won ($800 million) in sales over the next 1...

Samsung Electronics' head office in SeoulSamsung Electronics Co. was chosen as a supplier of 5G network equipment for Dish Network Corp., a US wireless carrier, which is in the middle of building a 5G network across the US to cover 70% of the US population by 2023, Samsung said on Tuesday.The contract value was not disclosed. But industry sources said it exceeded 1 trillion won ($790 million), about one-tenth of the total cost of the 5G project estimated by Dish co-founder and Chairman Charlie E...

South Korea's President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol (second left) visits the construction site of a nuclear power plant that has been suspended on Dec. 29, 2021South Korea’s incoming administration seeks to export 10 nuclear power plants by 2030 as President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol pledged to rescind the current government policy of phasing out nuclear energy.The transition committee for Yoon, who takes office on May 10, also unveiled on Tuesday tasks such as securing an “overwhelming lead&rdquo...

Hugel is Korea’s largest botox makerThe legal dispute over a botox strain between South Korean pharmaceutical company Medytox Inc. and its crosstown rival Hugel Inc. has intensified with the International Trade Commission (ITC) officially launching an investigation into the case.The US trade panel has begun looking into the case involving Hugel, Croma-Pharma GmbH, its partner in the US and European markets, and Hugel America, their joint venture, according to Medytox on Tuesday.In response...

Nongshim Chairman (middle) listens to staff at the company’s second plant in California (Courtesy of Nongshim)South Korea’s No. 1 noodle maker Nongshim Co. aims to top the world’s instant noodle market, beating the current dominant Japanese competitor in the US with premium products.Nongshim on April 29 held a ceremony for the completion of its second US plant in California, next to its first factory in Los Angeles, according to the maker of Shin Ramyun on Monday. The 26,800-sq...

The virtual production studio at CJ ENM Studio in Paju City, Gyeonggi ProvinceSouth Korean entertainment powerhouse CJ ENM Co. has acquired a minority stake in US metaverse entertainment and media firm Hyperreal Digital Inc., the Korean company said on May 2. CJ ENM didn’t disclose other details of the deal. Hyperreal was founded in 2019 by Remington Scott, a computer graphic imagery veteran who worked on characters and visual effects creation of world-renowned films, such as The Lord of t...

Samsung is losing foundry ground to TSMCFor years, Samsung Electronics Co. has been touted as the backbone of the South Korean economy, Asia’s fourth-largest, under its government’s push to foster the country’s chip industry as a global powerhouse.However, the Korean tech giant is losing its share of the global foundry market, where Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is the dominant player.Recently, Samsung came under increased pressure as TSMC forged a strategic par...

LG CNS won a license for South Korea's MyData project in September 2021South Korea's LG CNS Co., 35% owned by Macquarie Group, sent requests for proposals to brokerage companies on Monday as it is looking to go public next year, according to investment banking sources.The country's leading IT service provider will select underwriters later this month to prepare its initial public offering on the Kospi main bourse, which would help Macquarie Group's private equity arm to exit from LG CNS for arou...

The Apple logo is seen at the entrance of an Apple store in Washington, DC. (Courtesy of AFP, Yonhap)In October 2012, US tech giant Apple Inc. fired Dominique Oh, the head of its South Korean unit due to sluggish sales in the country, home to Samsung Electronics Co., which dominated the local smartphone market in the previous year.Samsung and Apple have been fiercely competing in the global smartphone market. The South Korean tech behemoth was the top player in terms of shipments. But Apple is a...

Hyundai Heavy Industries ships a gas engine power generating set to Brazil in March 2022Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., a South Korean shipbuilding giant, is seeing its marine engine business unit emerge as the company’s cash cow.The Engine & Machinery Business Division, which makes marine engines and machinery, is estimated to value at 2 trillion won ($1.6 billion) and is expected to post a record-high annual operating profit of 164 billion won this year. Market watchers say the engine ...

(Photo: Getty Images Bank)Hong Kong-based Baring Private Equity Asia is planning to raise a total of 674 billion won ($532 million) in loans for South Korea's Acuon Capital and Acuon Savings Bank to recoup most of its investment in the two small-sized lenders,according to investment banking sources on Monday.The new loans will be used to repay their existing debt and pay dividends to their shareholder Baring PEA.Baring PEA had acquired Acuon Capital and Acuon Savings Bank in August 2019 from the...

LG Display's transparent OLED panelLG Display Co., a major South Korean display panel maker, plans to drastically cut production of its liquid crystal display panels for TVs, as it faces growing competition from Chinese panel manufacturers.Starting this month, LG Display is cutting back on its input of glass substrates on its LCD assembly lines in Paju, Korea and Guangzhou in China, with an aim to slash TV LCD panel output by a double-digit percentage in the second half, people familiar with the...

Shinhan Bank's private wealth management service launched in Vietnam in 2019South Korea's Shinhan Financial Group has picked Vietnam’s e-commerce startup Tiki as its first strategic partner in the Southeast Asian country, where Shinhan is aiming to expand its digital services beyond financial areas.The No. 2 banking group in South Korea said on Monday it has agreed to buy a 10% stake in Tiki for an undisclosed sum to become the latter's third-largest shareholder.Shinhan Bank, the biggest f...

Naver Webtoon service in ThaiNaver Webtoon Corp., the digital comics and novel platform of South Korea’s online portal giant Naver Corp., saw users nearly quadrupling in five years thanks to localizations.Naver Webtoon’s story-tech platform that provides webtoon and web novels, secured 180 million monthly active users (MAU) as of March around the world, up from 46 million in 2017, according to the company. The number of monthly users for its global webtoon services such as LINE Webto...

POSCO International produces liquefied natural gas offshore Myanmar (Courtesy of POSCO)South Korea’s top three general trading companies, LX International Corp., POSCO International Corp. and Samsung C&T Corp. achieved record-high quarterly performances during the first quarter of this year, thanks to global raw materials shortage and logistics costs hikes. The general trading companies, which usually work as middlemen connecting buyers and sellers, are said to thrive with new business...

Hyundai Motor's car assembly line in ChinaThe growing fears of a Beijing lockdown are prompting South Korea’s top automaker Hyundai Motor Co. and battery makers, already suffering from supply chain disruptions in China, to diversify parts procurement channels away from Chinese suppliers.Korean companies are also moving to secure metals such as lithium directly from mining companies and manufacturers of raw materials to cut rising costs and limit supply disruptions.“It looks like the ...

Asiana and Korean Air's planes stationed at Incheon International AirportSouth Korea's Asiana Airlines Inc. has stepped up its pressure on Gategroup to nullify its 30-year in-flight meal contract with the Swiss catering service provider, accusing the latter's top management of what the country's antitrust body concluded was a clandestine dual contract.In March of this year, Asiana filed criminal charges against four former and current top managers of Gategroup with the Seoul Central District Pro...

Hyundai Electric & Energy System plant in Alabama, US (Courtesy of Hyundai Electric)Hyundai Electric & Energy Systems Co., an electric system spinoff from South Korean shipbuilding giant Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., said on May 1 that its monthly order in April hit a record high with 500 billion won ($395.9 million). The orders came from global power generation, distribution, energy solutions and other sectors in line with increasing investment in renewables and recovery of orders from ...

Samsung's shares are rebounding from a 52-week low levelShares of Samsung Electronics Co., the largest stock on South Korea’s main bourse, rose strongly on Friday, snapping a five-day losing streak, as foreign investors returned on bargain hunting.Samsung closed up 4%, its biggest daily percentage gain in nearly five months, at 67,400 won, outperforming the broader benchmark Kospi’s 1% rise.The technology giant has fallen to fresh 52-week lows 10 times so far this month, weighed by t...

FreeWire Technologies' EV charging station (Courtesy of FreeWire)SK Inc., the holding company of South Korean conglomerate SK Group, has committed to invest $5 million in US electric vehicle charging stations manufacturer FreeWire Technologies, investment banking sources said on Friday. The investment will be made via a $3 million new mobility fund, which SK and China’s leading automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. jointly created in 2021 for future mobility.SK’s investment is p...

Nighttime view of Dongdaemun Design Plaza in northern SeoulWhen it comes to the economy, would it be faster for South Korea to surpass Japan or be surpassed by Taiwan?Recently, all eyes are on the three East Asian countries’ economic data. A lot of the analysis is on comparing Japan’s inevitable economic downturn, South Korea’s fight to keep the status quo, and Taiwan’s visible progress.Lee Sim-Gi, Managing Editor at The Korea Economic DailyIt appears that the cat is alre...

Nighttime view of Dongdaemun Design Plaza in northern SeoulWhen it comes to the economy, would it be faster for South Korea to surpass Japan or be surpassed by Taiwan?Recently, all eyes are on the three East Asian countries’ economic data. A lot of the analysis is on comparing Japan’s inevitable economic downturn, South Korea’s fight to keep the status quo, and Taiwan’s visible progress.Lee Sim-Gi, Managing Editor at The Korea Economic DailyIt appears that the cat is alre...

SK Innovation’s refining complex in Ulsan, South KoreaSK Innovation Co., South Korea’s top refiner, enjoyed the record quarterly earnings on strong crude prices and margins, joining the list of domestic peers with profits at all-time highs.SK Innovation said on Friday its operating profit nearly tripled to 1.6 trillion won ($1.3 billion) in the first quarter on a consolidated basis from 584.4 billion won a year earlier. Sales jumped 72.9% to 16.3 trillion won.Its refining unit report...

Color-coated steel platesThe growing demand for color-coated steel is fueling competition among South Korean manufacturers of specialty steel products, raising concerns about their profitability at a time of rising raw material costs.Dongkuk Steel Mill Co., the country’s third-largest steelmaker, has for years been the dominant player in the domestic color steel market, but in the first quarter it gave up its top post to KG Dongbu Steel Co., the runner-up.Other companies such as POSCO Stee...

YKMC CEO Jang Kwan-Seop checks aluminum material for display vacuum chambers at the company’s plant in Asan, South KoreaSouth Korea’s YKMC Inc., an integrated contract manufacturer for global companies such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and Airbus, aims to top the world’s anodizing industry currently dominated by US competitors by 2030.Anodizing is an electrochemical process that converts the metal surface into a decorative, durable, corrosion-resistant, anod...

Club Mow golf course (Courtesy of Club Mow)The price of a public golf course in South Korea has surged 35% in one and a half years to set the highest per-hole selling price for a Korean golf course on record, according to people with knowledge of the matter on Thursday.Club Mow, a 27-hole golf course in Hongcheon, Gangwon Province, will likely sell for around 250 billion won ($200 million), or 9.2 billion won ($7.2 million) per hole, to Seoul-based Kalon Investment Asset Management Co.The expect...

LS Group chairman Koo Ja-eunSouth Korean conglomerate LS Group is eyeing the growing electric vehicle industry and the markets derived from it.The group announced the launch of new corporation named LS E-Link on Thursday – its seventh subsidiary. The EV charging service provider is a joint venture between LS Corp. and E1 Corp.LS is the group’s namesake holding company. E1, an affiliate of LS Group, imports liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from overseas and distributes it in South Korea....

An Amorepacific outlet in New YorkSouth Korea’s cosmetics giant Amorepacific Corp. on Thursday posted disappointing first-quarter sales and operating profit as revenue from China, its key market, fell.But analysts expect the company’s earnings to improve in the coming quarters on the back of its business restructuring amid hopes of relaxed pandemic-related restrictions.The company’s first-quarter sales fell 7% from a year ago to 1.17 trillion won ($919 million), while operating...

Samsung Asset Management headquarters in SeoulSamsung Asset Management Co. is slated to list a blockchain exchange-traded fund on the Hong Kong Exchange (HKEX) in the first half of this year, the Samsung Group’s investment arm said on Thursday. It is the first ETF to list in the Asian market that tracks cryptocurrencies as well as blockchain tech companies.The listing follows the asset manager’s acquisition of a 20% stake in US ETF sponsor Amplify Holding Company LLC in late March. S...

One percent stake in this calf sells for 48,000 won ($38) (Courtesy of Bancow)Investment rights for dozens of Korean calves, worth a combined 10 million won ($7,900), sold out within one minute after each of the three investment windows opened on April 22.Bancow, a crowdfunding platform for Korean live cattle, will use the investmentor money to breed 40 calves on local farms and share profits from the sale of the cattle in one or two years in proportion to their stakes.In January of this year, t...

An employee working inside a TSMC 12-Inch wafer fab laboratoryShares of Samsung Electronics Co. fell to a fresh 52-week low on Thursday when it posted record sales for the third consecutive quarter as investors questioned the tech giant’s business outlook amid the top leadership vacuum.Samsung, the world’s largest memory and smartphone maker, said its first-quarter revenue increased 19% on-year to an all-time high of 77.78 trillion won ($61.24 billion), driven by brisk sales of memor...

Woowa Brothers Corp. is the operator of South Korea’s top food delivery app Baedal MinjokSouth Korea’s retail investors are increasingly more bullish in startups than in manufacturing or retail firms.The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced Thursday that retail investors injected about 531 billion won ($418 million) into startups in the first three months of this year – a whopping 276% jump from the same period last year. The figure accounts for 20.7% of the total startup fu...

LG OLED evo TV (Courtesy of LG Electronics)LG Electronics Inc., the world’s top home appliances maker, expected the business condition to deteriorate in the second quarter amid higher costs on various issues such as the war in Ukraine and surging inflation even as the company reported record earnings in the previous three months.The South Korean electronics giant on Thursday said its operating profit rose 6.4% to an all-time high of 1.9 trillion won ($1.5 billion) on a consolidated basis i...

Hyundai Heavy Industries Group's autonomous ship displayed at CES 2022A liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier with autonomous sailing systems will go on an ocean voyage next month to become the world's first large autonomous ship to set sail on the sea.The LNG carrier, built by Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, will depart from North America to cross the Pacific Ocean, according to maritime and shipbuilding industry sources on April 27.The vessel, named "Prism Courage," is 300 meters long, 46.4 m wi...

SK Group is composed of 95 subsidiariesSK Group, which has SK Inc. as its holding company, is now South Korea’s second largest conglomerate by asset size – replacing automotive behemoth Hyundai Motor Group.The climb up is the result of continued investments in battery and biotech industries and the semiconductor arm’s robust sales.17 YEARS IN MAKINGSouth Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) announced Wednesday that SK Group’s total amount of assets last year increase...

NH Investment & Securities celebrates the opening of its London affiliate on April 26NH Investment & Securities Co. has set up its affiliate incorporated in London, the South Korea's major brokerage house announced on April 27. The brokerage firm is aiming to provide various investment banking deal opportunities via the London affiliate, named NH Investment & Securities Europe, to Korean investors.Based on its broad networks with overseas investment banks, the new affiliate will cove...

(Left) Yukihiro Hattori and (Right) Ryoichi Adachi respectively become the new president and vice president of Hyundai Mobis JapanSouth Korea’s Hyundai Mobis Co. has tapped two Japanese auto experts to accelerate its business in Japan, the company announced on April 27. The Hyundai Motor Group’s auto parts maker unit has hired Yukihiro Hattori, a former director of purchases at Mitsubishi Motors Corp., and Ryoichi Adachi who has supervised the purchase of Mazda Motor Corp. Hattori an...

S-Oil's refining and petrochemical complex in Ulsan, South Korea (Courtesy of S-Oil)S-Oil Corp., Saudi Aramco’s refining unit in South Korea, enjoyed record earnings in the first quarter on healthy crude prices and refining margins while expecting the company to maintain strong momentum in the second.S-Oil, the third-largest refiner in South Korea, said on Wednesday its operating profit more than doubled to a record 1.3 trillion won ($1.1 billion) in the January-March period from 629.2 bil...

LX InternationalLX International Corp., the trading unit of South Korea’s LX Group, has seen its enterprise value rise by two-thirds over the past three months, driven by gains from its investment in an Indonesian coal mine and a cryptocurrency.Shares of LX International, listed on Korea’s main bourse, finished Wednesday 2% lower at 37,550 won, bringing its market capitalization to 1.46 trillion won ($1.15 billion). That’s up 66%, or 579.4 billion won, from a market cap of 876 ...

LG Energy Solution’s staffs showcase a long cell battery it develops (Courtesy of LG Energy Solution)LG Energy Solution Ltd., the world’s second-largest electric vehicle battery maker, plans to spend more on global capacity expansion than initially projected as the South Korean company is ramping up production around the world to meet growing demand.LG Energy is set to invest 7 trillion won ($5.5 billion) in capital expenditures this year, up from its initial plan of 6.3 trillion won...

Ko San, member of presidential transition committee, speaking on April 26The incoming Yoon Suk-yeol administration plans to support the startup ecosystem – the biotech and artificial intelligence firms in particular.The presidential transition committee announced the plan during Tuesday’s press briefing. Ko San, one of the committee members working on the next administration’s economic plan, said the Tech Incubator Program for Startup Korea (TIPS) will be expanded.In addition t...