Macquarie Korea infrastructure fund’s profit inches up in H1

Macquarie Korea Infrastructure Fund said Monday it saw a slight increase in its return on investment and its dividend payout to end-investors in the first half of 2020. According to the final estimate, MKIF recorded a return of 191.2 billion won ($160.3 million), up 1.2 percent on-year. MKIF also vowed to pay 360 won per share to investors in interim dividends, or a 6.2 percent dividend payout ratio, for the first half. MKIF, trading on the nation’s main bourse Kospi since 2006, has com

MarketAug. 3, 2020

Asiana creditor blasts HDC for looming W2.5tr deal collapse

Policy lender Korea Development Bank on Monday turned its blame to Hyundai Development Co., the proposed buyer of indebted Asiana Airlines, over its delayed 2.5 trillion-won ($2.09 billion) acquisition deal from Kumho Industrial, the owner of the troubled air carrier. The KDB, one of the creditors of Asiana Airlines, also refused to accept HDC’s call for an extra round of 12 weeks of due diligence on the nation’s No. 2 air carrier -- in addition to the previous seven-week proce

MarketAug. 3, 2020

[Newsmaker] Kakao Games under fire for sexist translation ahead of IPO

Kakao Games is facing a boycott from users for sexist translations in its newly released game Guardian Tales, posing a hiccup to the company that stands on the doorstep of going public. The gaming unit of Korea’s leading messenger app operator Kakao on Sunday conducted an unscheduled update at 10 a.m. without a specific explanation, infuriating users as the entire server for Guardian Tales went down for eight minutes. In the English version of Guardian Tales, from which the Korean ver

IndustryAug. 3, 2020

Seoul home prices now exceed 12 years’ average salary

A Seoul citizen has to save their entire income without spending a dime for more than 12 years in order to buy a house in the city due to the country’s soaring apartment prices, data showed Monday.  The capital city’s house price to income ratio, or PIR -- a widely used measurement of house affordability in a given region -- reached 12.13 in 2019, said Rep. Yang Kyung-sook of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, quoting data from the National Assembly Research Service. The

MarketAug. 3, 2020

Viva Republica launches credit card processing subsidiary

Viva Republica, operator of mobile fintech platform Toss, said Monday that it has launched a payment gateway subsidiary called Toss Payments. The establishment of the new subsidiary comes after the fintech company reached an agreement with mobile network giant LG Uplus in December, taking over full ownership of the latter’s payment gateway unit. A payment gateway is a service that authorizes credit card payments. With the new subsidiary, Viva Republica aims to take e-commerce payment

MarketAug. 3, 2020

Seoul stocks end tad higher on EV battery makers' rally, tech gains

South Korean shares closed slightly higher Monday due to an advance in EV battery makers and tech shares, bucking concerns over the global resurgence of the COVID-19 infections. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. After choppy trading, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 1.67 points, or 0.07 percent, to close at 2,251.04. Trading volume was high at about 636 million shares worth some 13.4 trillion won ($11.2 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 515 to 325.

MarketAug. 3, 2020

[News Focus] Family feud simmers at Korea’s largest tiremaker

When the chief of Korea’s largest tiremaker sold all his stock in the company to his second son on June 30, the succession appeared to have proceeded smoothly. But it had not. The simmering family dispute has come to light because the chairman’s daughter took issue with the handover. On Thursday, Cho Hee-kyung, the eldest daughter of group Chairman Cho Yang-rai, applied to be her father’s guardian -- requesting the legal authority to care for the personal and property interes

IndustryAug. 3, 2020

Tax authorities zero in on foreigners with multiple homes

SEJONG -- The nation’s tax agency has launched a probe targeting 42 foreigners who own multiple apartments here and are alleged to have evaded taxes, as part of the government’s drive to curb surging housing prices and discourage speculative investment, officials said Monday. The probe involves a 40-something US citizen who has purchased 42 homes in South Korea since 2018 for 6.7 billion won ($5.6 million) in total. The American underreported their rental income to evade income t

EconomyAug. 3, 2020

Mobile game sales in S. Korea hit record high in H1

Sales of mobile games in South Korea soared to a record high in the first half of the year amid the coronavirus pandemic that has confined more people to their homes, industry data showed Monday. Combined sales of three app markets -- Google's Play Store for Android devices, Apple's App Store for iPhones, and ONE store -- stood at 2.83 trillion won ($2.37 billion) in the January-June period, up 1.3 times from a year earlier, according to the data by mobile big data platform IGAWorks. The figu

IndustryAug. 3, 2020

Chong Kun Dang’s net profit rises 100% on-year in Q2

Chong Kun Dang’s second quarter net profit rose 100 percent on-year due to decreased spending on marketing amid COVID-19 social distancing, and solid sales of its chronic illness treatments. Hi Investment & Securities said Monday it is upward-adjusting prospects for Chong Kun Dang by 26.9 percent from previous 130,000 won ($109) to 165,000 won. Shinyoung Securities set the prospect slightly higher at 170,000 won and reinforced the opinion to buy. Chong Kun Dang’s performance wa

IndustryAug. 3, 2020

Telcos beef up videoconferencing services amid pandemic

South Korean telecom companies are ramping up moves to improve their videoconference services to meet rising demand amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which has spurred a telework trend here, industry insiders said Monday. Global videoconference and work collaboration software, such as Zoom and Microsoft Corp.'s Teams, have recently surged in popularity on the back of pandemic-driven demand. Zoom reported it had 300 million global daily meeting users in April, compared with 10 million in December las

TechnologyAug. 3, 2020

Samsung opens in-house COVID-19 testing center

Samsung Electronics Co. said Monday it has set up an in-house virus testing center to ramp up its anti-virus measures amid the pandemic. Samsung opened a virus testing center inside its plant in Hwaseong, south of Seoul, becoming the first company in South Korea to have an in-house COVID-19 testing facility. The center will manage specimen collection, diagnostic tests and other related tasks with six medical professionals, the company added. Samsung's Hwaseong campus is one of the company

IndustryAug. 3, 2020

[Monitor] S. Korea’s exports shore up

South Korea’s exports in July declined by a single digit percent in four months after showing a double-digit drop for three consecutive months, data showed Sunday. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said the nation’s exports fell 7 percent on-year to $42.83 billion last month. In the aftermath of COVID-19, Korea’s monthly exports fell 25.5 percent in April, 23.6 percent in May and 10.9 percent in June, marking the third consecutive month of double-digit decline.

IndustryAug. 3, 2020

Non-contact travel trend boosts sales of camping, outdoor gear

The new coronavirus outbreak has given a big boost to domestic travel here amid disrupted air travel. But for some vacationers, visiting tourist attractions or using lodging facilities could still be the last thing they want to do. Against this backdrop, a new non-contact travel trend has gained traction in South Korea as more people are turning their eyes to outdoor camping and "chabak," a newly coined word that means sleeping and staying in a car during travel. A 31-year-old offic

ConsumerAug. 3, 2020

Seoul stocks open lower on chip, auto losses

South Korean shares opened lower Monday, led by a decline in chip and auto shares. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 7.75 points, or 0.34 percent, to 2,241.62 in the first 15 minutes of trading. The fall is largely attributed to the losses in top caps. The political feud between the United States and China, South Korea's two largest trade partners, also sapped investor sentiment. Large caps traded mixed. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics lost 0.69 percent,

MarketAug. 3, 2020

Apartment 'jeonse' deals in Seoul hit 9-year low in July

Apartment lease contracts in the South Korean capital of Seoul sank to a nine-year low in July amid tighter rules, municipal data showed Monday. The number of apartment lease contracts, called "jeonse" here, stood at 6,304 in July, the lowest monthly level since data tracking began in 2011, according to the data from the Seoul city government. The July reading amounted to 46 percent of this year's monthly high of 13,661 recorded in February. Jeonse is a home rental arrangement uniq

EconomyAug. 3, 2020

Banking groups strive for digitalization amid lingering virus risks

The performance of South Korean financial groups was all over the map in the April-June period, and the coronavirus pandemic is prompting many to draw up digitalization plans for the second half of the year. The nation’s list of top groups by earnings got a reshuffle in recent weeks, with Shinhan Financial Group -- which had maintained the top spot for some time -- handing over the crown to KB Financial Group. Shinhan Financial said Friday it posted net profit of 873.1 billion won ($725

MarketAug. 2, 2020

Hanmi Pharmaceutical founder dies at 80

Hanmi Pharmaceutical’s founder and chairman, Lim Sung-ki, died of a chronic disease Sunday at dawn after devoting his life to the South Korean bio industry. He was 80. Lim was the owner of Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group and the largest shareholder of Hanmi Science, the group’s holding company. Born in 1940 in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, Lim graduated from Chung-ang University’s college of pharmacy. He opened the Lim Sung-ki Pharmacy in Dongdaemun, Seoul, in 1967 and went on to

IndustryAug. 2, 2020

[Behind the Wheel] SsangYong’s Rexton Sports Dynamic Edition shows off strength off-road

While pickup trucks have not been a major segment in South Korea’s automobile market, SsangYong Motor’s Rexton truck is something of an exception, with competitive pricing, convenient functions and designs attractive enough to change the minds of sedan-lovers. Rolling out Rexton Sports in 2018, the country’s first open-deck sports utility vehicle, SsangYong has taken 97 percent of the local market share, selling over 40,000 units of the car in first and second year of release

MobilityAug. 2, 2020

In terms of renewable energy usage, Korea lags behind most of the world

South Korea generates relatively little power from renewable energy, lagging behind most of the world’s countries, a report showed Sunday. According to the data compiled by France-based energy consulting firm Enerdata, renewable energy-based power generation accounted for only 4.8 percent of the nation’s net power generation, putting Korea 40th among 44 nations. The countries that appeared further down the list were all oil-producing nations from the Middle East, where demand for

IndustryAug. 2, 2020