Renault Samsung to suspend plant for 11 days on virus impact

Renault Samsung Motors, the South Korean unit of Renault S.A., said Monday it will suspend its sole plant for 11 days, as the coronavirus outbreak has affected production and sales. Renault Samsung will halt operations at its plant in Busan, 453 kilometers southeast of Seoul, from Thursday through May 8 "to give an extended holiday to its employees in the family month," a company spokesman said. The carmaker stopped the Busan plant for four days in February due to lack of parts fro

MobilityApril 27, 2020

Samsung Heavy Q1 net losses widen on FX losses

Samsung Heavy Industries, a major South Korean shipbuilder, said Monday that its net losses widened in the first quarter from a year earlier due to evaluation losses of dollar-denominated assets. For the January-March quarter, net losses deepened to 227 billion won ($185 million) from a loss of 102.6 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. Samsung Heavy said the won's weakness against the US dollar drove up the evaluation losses from its forward exchange contracts

IndustryApril 27, 2020

S-Oil bleeds W1tr in Q1, worst in its history

S-Oil on Monday reported a swing to an operating loss of more than 1 trillion won ($815 million) in the first quarter due to a sharp fall in oil prices amid the COVID-19 outbreak, recording the worst figure since the company started business in 1976. The Korean refiner posted an operating loss of some 1,007,300,000,000 won in the first quarter from 270.4 billion won from the same period last year. The company’s revenue dipped 4.2 percent to 5.1 trillion won on-year. “The loss w

IndustryApril 27, 2020

[Contribution] Korea's strategy for attracting FDI amid pandemic

Amidst the widespread global spread of COVID-19, a videoconference between Korea and France was held on April 10 under the auspices of the Korean-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Introducing the current status of Korea’s response to COVID-19 and changes in the foreign direct investment environment, about 400 participants, including the French ambassador in Korea as well as French government officials, congressmen, companies and media, showed great interest in Korea’s quarant

IndustryApril 27, 2020

LS Group boosts power infrastructure, smart energy business worldwide

LS Group plans to expand into the power infrastructure, smart energy and digital transformation sectors in the global market, the firm said Monday. Chairman Koo Ja-yeol, in his New Year’s address this year, urged the company to “thoroughly localize the organization and manpower of its global business and increase their operational efficiency.” To this end, LS plans to establish a group-level regional strategy centered on areas with high growth potential, such as China and th

IndustryApril 27, 2020

Doosan to secure W3tr through self-rescue efforts

Doosan Group said Monday it finalized a self-rescue plan to secure 3 trillion won ($2.4 billion) by selling assets and reducing costs to improve struggling Doosan Heavy Industries’ financial structure. Minutes later, its main creditors released a statement, saying they accept the plan and have begun reviewing additional financial support. “Even if the recovery of the global economy and power generation market are delayed, Doosan will make self-rescue efforts to improve its financia

IndustryApril 27, 2020

Tmon’s planned IPO gathers steam

Tmon, a leading South Korean e-commerce company, is gearing up to go public in earnest, as it has recently chosen local investment firm Mirae Asset Daewoo as its leading underwriter. The move came after the IPO plan faced a number of hurdles in finding underwriters earlier this year due mainly to negative outlooks for the highly saturated domestic e-commerce market. “Mirae Asset Daewoo has been picked as the sole underwriter, outgunning NH Investment & Securities and Nomura Securit

MarketApril 27, 2020

Korea ups investment to self-produce parts in space development

South Korea’s Science Ministry on Monday said that it will inject 211 billion won ($170 million) into space research to help the nation’s space industry produce key parts of launch vehicles and satellites. The Ministry of Science and ICT’s “Space Pioneer” research project passed a feasibility study Monday, which approved the investment of 211 billion won from 2021 to 2030. The ministry will provide 58 billion won in the launch vehicle area and 137 billion won i

TechnologyApril 27, 2020

S. Korea expands foreign aid, offers ‘K-quarantine’ boost

To shore up the global economy and contain the fallout from COVID-19, South Korea will provide $400 million for health projects in developing countries and postpone the maturity of debts worth $110 million, the country’s fiscal chief said Monday. Also, to keep up the momentum of the Moon Jae-in administration’s New Southern Policy and New Northern Policy, the government will double the volume of its official development assistance to $7 billion over the next three years. “

EconomyApril 27, 2020

Mercedes-Benz Korea ups donation upon pandemic

In line with its expansion of social responsibility programs, Mercedes-Benz Korea said Monday it is saving a percentage of revenue from car sales from March to May with a goal of donating over 1 billion won ($811,000) to charitable causes. Mercedes-Benz Korea has been embarking on social activities to contribute to less privileged Koreans and to contribute to the country’s fight against the impact of the novel coronavirus, the automaker said. The local importer and distributor of the G

MobilityApril 27, 2020

South Korea’s online shopping rate ranks world’s second amid COVID-19

South Korea’s online shopping rate was listed as second highest in the world amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a research firm said Monday. According to dunnhumby, a global customer data science company , Korea ranked second after China in the survey studying online consumption patterns, conducted with 7,677 consumers in 19 countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The 19 countries include five in Asia -- South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand; 10 from Europe -- S

ConsumerApril 27, 2020

Infant LCCs left out from state support fear business collapse

The South Korean government has been spewing out financial support schemes for the struggling airline industry upon the novel coronavirus pandemic since February. But the measures exclude minor and infant-stage low-cost carriers that had acquired their operation licenses only last year, stoking concerns over their business outlook. It also rekindled criticisms that the Transport Ministry had hastily handed out licenses for the already-crowded LCC sector. Most recently last week, the governmen

MobilityApril 27, 2020

Chinese amb. vows efforts to expedite entry exception system for S. Korean biz people

Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Xing Haiming said Monday he will try to bring into force as early as May "fast-track" entry for South Korean businesspeople into China in exception to current entry restrictions over the coronavirus. His remark comes as Seoul and Beijing are discussing details to create the special entry system for businesspeople to minimize the fallout caused by entry curbs in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "We talked about the fast-track. We agreed to re

IndustryApril 27, 2020

Seoul stocks rebound 1.8% on stimulus hopes, eased virus woes

South Korean stocks closed 1.79 percent higher Monday as the country continued to see the novel coronavirus outbreak wane. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) jumped 33.76 points to close at 1,922.77. Trading volume was moderate at 725 million shares worth 8 trillion won ($6.5 billion), with gainers far outpacing losers 738 to 126. The index opened higher and continued to build up gains on hopes that the coronavirus outbreak is p

MarketApril 27, 2020

Jeonbuk Bank’s Cambodian subsidiary issues corporate bonds worth $10m

Jeonbuk Bank’s Cambodian subsidiary recently floated corporate bonds worth $10 million, becoming the first South Korean financial institution to do so in the Southeast Asian nation, the lender’s holding group, JB Financial Group, said Monday. Phnom Penh Commercial Bank issued the bonds with a maturity period of three years and an annual interest rate of 6.5 percent. They are worth $25 in par value. The plan was approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia, whic

MarketApril 27, 2020

Insurers' risk-based capital ratio falls in Q4

Insurance companies in South Korea saw their risk-based capital ratio fall in the fourth quarter of last year, data showed Monday. The risk-based capital (RBC) ratio -- the actual solvency capital divided by the minimum solvency capital required -- of insurance firms stood at 269.5 percent at the end of December, down 17.4 percentage points from three months earlier, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). The RBC ratio is required to stay above the regulatory stan

EconomyApril 27, 2020

Woori Financial Q1 profit down 8.9% on loan-loss provisions

Woori Financial Group Inc., a major South Korean banking group, said Monday its first-quarter net profit fell 8.9 percent on-year due to loan-loss provisions. Net profit stood at 518.2 billion won ($421.3 million) for the January-March period, compared with 569 billion won for the same period of last year, Woori Financial said in a statement. The banking group said its loan-loss provisions in the first quarter led to the decline in its net profit. Woori Financial said there was a reversal of

MarketApril 27, 2020

KB Kookmin Card to acquire Thai lender in $20m deal

Seoul-based consumer loan provider KB Kookmin Card said Monday that it had signed a deal to buy a controlling 50.99 percent stake in J Fintech, a Thailand-based personal loan provider, for 650 million baht ($20 million). This marks the first acquisition deal that allows a South Korean credit card company to enter the Thai financial market since the Asian financial crisis in 1997. The deal is awaiting approval from the financial authorities in Korea and Thailand. The credit card company ex

MarketApril 27, 2020

BOK offers additional $1.2b to banks via US currency swap

The Bank of Korea (BOK) said Monday it will deliver an additional $1.26 billion to local banks under its currency swap deal with the US Fed in a move to help stabilize the local foreign exchange market. The BOK held its fifth online auction to provide up to $4 billion. Bids undershot the target amount, possibly indicating the stabilization of the local market, the BOK noted. "Considering that bids fell short of those of last week (at $2.12 billion), the recent drop in the London Interba

EconomyApril 27, 2020

LG Chem to invest W65b to boost production of carbon nanotubes

LG Chem, Korea’s largest chemicals company, said Monday that it will invest about 65 billion won ($53 million) to boost production of carbon nanotubes. The investment is set to be completed at the Yeosu plant in South Jeolla Province by March next year, which would increase annual production of carbon nanotubes to 1,700 tons from the current 500 tons. The move is meant to tap deeper into the rapidly growing carbon nanotubes market, said LG Chem. Carbon nanotubes are used as conductive

IndustryApril 27, 2020