S. Korea to hold nationwide shopping festival in Nov.

South Korea will hold a massive nationwide shopping festival involving major retailers, manufacturers and traditional markets in November to attract foreign tourists and boost domestic consumption, organizers said Friday. The annual Korea Sale FESTA will kick off Nov. 1 for a 15-day run, offering items ranging from electronics and furniture to cosmetics and apparel, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and the organizing committee. A total of 1,328 companies are slated to p

EconomyOct. 23, 2020

Lock-up free institutions’ selloff behind Big Hit stock plunge: market watchers

An instant 425.8 billion-won ($375.1 million) selloff by major shareholders of South Korean pop music agency Big Hit Entertainment appears to have caused a sharp decline of the Big Hit stock price in the days after its listing, market watchers said Thursday. Two special purpose companies including the fourth-largest shareholder Mainstone -- which owned a combined 9.16 percent of common shares -- immediately sold nearly half of their holdings in Big Hit, after the company went public o

MarketOct. 22, 2020

LCD helps LG Display turn profit for first time in 7 quarters

LG Display on Thursday posted third-quarter revenue of 6.7 trillion won ($5.9 billion) and an operating profit of 164.4 billion won, marking the company’s first profit in seven quarters. The revenue was a 27 percent increase from the previous quarter. Net profit was 11.1 billion won. Panels for such information technology devices as computers laptops and tablets accounted for 43 percent of the revenue, with TVs at 28 percent and mobile and others at 29 percent. In a conference call th

IndustryOct. 22, 2020

LG Household & Health Care delivers largest Q3 revenue of W2.7tr

Consumer goods company LG Household & Health Care posted 2.7 trillion won ($2.38 billion) in quarterly revenue, its best-ever earnings for the third-quarter period. While its revenue was up 5.4 percent compared to the same time last year, the company also posted a net profit of 231.7 billion won, up 6.7 percent from a year ago and an operating profit of 327.6 billion won, up 5.1 percent, according to its regulatory filing Thursday. Despite uncertainties stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic,

ConsumerOct. 22, 2020

Antitrust watchdog to review Google's competition violation this year: head

The head of South Korea's fair trade watchdog said Thursday her agency will review one of two ongoing probes into Google Inc.'s market competition violations. Since 2016, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) has been investigating Google over allegations that it obstructed local smartphone makers from using operating systems from other rivals. It is also investigating whether Google forced mobile game applications to be only released on its Play store. "The KFTC is currently conductin

IndustryOct. 22, 2020

Samsung SDS wins AI engine competitions

Samsung SDS announced Thursday that the company had won both foreign and local competitions designed to test natural language processing capabilities. Samsung SDS’ artificial intelligence model won a competition associated with HotpotQA -- a dataset developed by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford University, the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms, and Google AI. In Korea, the company has won competitions related to the Korean Question Answering Dataset, in whi

TechnologyOct. 22, 2020

LG joins tailorable home appliance market with Objet Collection

LG Electronics on Thursday announced a new lineup of tailorable home appliances under the brand Objet, joining the growing market for customizable consumer electronics. The company unveiled 11 new products, including a convertible refrigerator, dishwasher, lightwave oven, water purifier, washing machine and clothes care machine. Those products under LG Objet Collection offer a number of customizable options, letting consumers choose colors, materials and arrangements of functions to make

TechnologyOct. 22, 2020

LG CNS to allow more students to take AI education program

LG CNS said Thursday that the company would provide artificial intelligence education to around 4,000 students here. The company said it has increased the number of students who can take its education program this year by 60 percent compared to last year. In 2019, the company had some 2,500 students complete its program. Starting this year, LG CNS has been holding classes online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Around 1,000 students have finished the program, and the company will invite 3,000 m

TechnologyOct. 22, 2020

McDonald’s Korea starts cooking with sunflower oil

McDonald’s Korea said Thursday it has replaced all the oil used in cooking its food with sunflower oil, a first in the quick service restaurant industry. The burger chain said it introduced sunflower oil to all of its burger outlets, as it is a healthier ingredient that is lower in trans fats than the vegetable oils the company was using before. The move comes as part of the plan the company announced earlier this month to promote sustainable growth for society and the environment. Sunf

ConsumerOct. 22, 2020

Nongshim opens application for startup fostering program Nongshim Techup+

Nongshim, a South Korean food company, said Thursday it kicked off its annual fostering program to select and support food tech startups dubbed Nongshim Techup+. This year’s theme is “new lifestyle in the post-COVID-19 era,” and Nongshim is looking for food tech startups that present creative products or services in areas such as non-contact business, healthcare and all other economic activities done at home, the company explained. Nongshim said it will evaluate applicants

ConsumerOct. 22, 2020

South Korean consumers most worried in world over COVID-19: survey

South Korean consumers are more worried about COVID-19 than consumers anywhere else in the world, and are also the biggest users of online food services, according to a survey by customer data analysis firm Dunnhumby. In a survey report released Thursday, titled “Impact COVID-19 has had on customer attitudes and behavior,” Korea was identified as the country with the most worried consumers concerning the COVID-19 outbreak, with respondents saying their personal finances had weakene

IndustryOct. 22, 2020

Seoul stocks snap 3-day winning streak amid US stimulus uncertainties

South Korean stocks ended a three-day winning streak Thursday amid lingering uncertainties over a new stimulus push in the world's largest economy. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 15.81 points, or 0.67 percent, to close at 2,355.05. Trading volume was moderate at about 802 million shares worth some 9.6 trillion won ($8.5 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 543 to 303. Foreigners sold a net 73 billion won, while ret

MarketOct. 22, 2020

Posco International stands at fore on Korea’s food security amid pandemic

Posco International said Thursday it imported 68,000 metric tons of feed wheat from Ukraine, for the first time in South Korea, a move to secure a stable grain supply system for the nation. Of the total, 41,000 tons were imported through the Ukrainian grain terminal invested in by the trading company. The imports were made in partnership with Nonghyup Feed, the largest feed grain importer in Korea. Posco International said this shipment was the first import of feed grain from a overseas grai

IndustryOct. 22, 2020

Apple's iPhone 12 to propel S. Korea's 5G user growth

Apple Inc.'s new iPhone 12 is expected to boost South Korea's number of 5G users to over 10 million by the end of this year, local analysts said Thursday, as the country looks to lead the global race to deploy the latest-generation network. The first 5G phone from Apple, set to be available for preorder Friday here, comes as a boon for telecom operators that have faced disappointing 5G user growth since the country first launched the network in April last year. South Korea's three major teleco

TechnologyOct. 22, 2020

‘Remote patient monitoring should become nationwide agenda’

GE Healthcare on Thursday hosted a seminar on how remote patient monitoring will become a new normal in the post-COVID-19 era. The seminar was part of the annual K-Hospital Fair 2020, which was held at Coex in Gangnam, Seoul. COVID-19 has made telemedicine and its related digital technologies a sudden quest in Korea, according to Professor Kim Kyung-hwan of Seoul National University Hospital’s Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery speaking at the seminar. These technologie

IndustryOct. 22, 2020

FSS to limit unlicensed investment consulting via Kakao, Telegram

South Korea’s financial watchdog has decided to restrict unlicensed investment advisers’ activities on instant messaging apps like KakaoTalk and Telegram, financial authorities said Thursday. The Financial Supervisory Service made the decision Wednesday to eliminate messaging app chatrooms from among the list of eligible platforms where such advisers can work. The option would be deleted on the business plan the advisers are required to submit to the watchdog. The current law bans

MarketOct. 22, 2020

Kakao to raise $300m in Singapore to muster up M&A dry powder

South Korea‘s internet giant Kakao is planning to issue $300 million worth of exchangeable bonds to accumulate the dry powder for its future mergers and acquisitions activities, the company said in a filing Thursday. The US dollar-denominated exchangeable bonds will be issued privately on Wednesday on the Singapore Exchange. Investors in the hybrid securities will be offered straight bonds with zero interest. Once the bonds mature in April 2023, the hybrid security investor will be offe

MarketOct. 22, 2020

Merck wins Korea Bioprocessing Excellence Award

Merck has been recognized with the Korea Bioprocessing Excellence Award at the Biologics Manufacturing Korea 2020 event, the company announced Thursday. The event, in its ninth year, annually invites some 400 experts from more than 100 governmental groups, nongovernmental organizations, related businesses and academic institutions to honor them in their respective categories. This year’s event was conducted virtually due to COVID-19. “Merck’s technology was recognized in the

IndustryOct. 22, 2020

Kyochon F&B set for November IPO on Kospi

Kyochon F&B, South Korea’s largest fried chicken franchise, will make its market debut on the nation’s main bourse Kospi next month to raise as much as 71.34 billion won ($62.85 million), its chief executive officer said Thursday. Kyochon will be the first franchise firm to be directly listed on Kospi, he said. “Being the first local franchise firm to list on Kospi means a lot to us. The IPO will set a meaningful milestone for Kyochon’s growth to become a global food

MarketOct. 22, 2020

Korea Shipbuilding gets nod for hydrogen carrier design

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. said Thursday that it and its unit Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co. have won approval for the design of a commercial hydrogen carrier for the first time in the world. The approval in principle for the design was awarded by KR, South Korea's ship quality assurance and risk management company, and the Liberian International Ship & Corporate Registry (LISCR), the US-based manager of the Liberian Registry, Korea Shipbuilding said. The approval allow

EconomyOct. 22, 2020