Hyundai Group on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against creditors of Hyundai Engineering & Construction, the country’s biggest builder, over the conglomerate’s lost case to acquire a controlling stake in the builder last year. “We’re claiming a total of 325.5 billion won against the creditor group for damages caused after they deprived the Hyundai Group of the right to negotiate primarily with Hyundai E&C last year,” Min Byung-hoon, the group’s lawyer, told reporters at a press conference. Hyundai Gr

Nov. 23, 2011

FSC might be ordered to decide on the fund’s shareholder eligibilityThe Supreme Court will deliver a verdict on a key issue regarding Lone Star Funds on Thursday, possibly forcing the Financial Services Commission to make public the fund’s eligibility as the biggest shareholder of Korea Exchange Bank.The FSC, which lost the original trial in 2007 and the second trial in 2009 in a lawsuit filed by Solidarity for Economic Reform, appealed to the highest court two years ago.Before the suit, the reg

Nov. 23, 2011

Regulator expected to be ordered to reveal the fund’s bank shareholder eligibilityThe Supreme Court will deliver a verdict on a key issue regarding Lone Star Funds on Thursday, possibly forcing the Financial Services Commission to make public the fund’s eligibility as the biggest shareholder of Korea Exchange Bank.The FSC, which lost the original trial in 2007 and the second trial in 2009 in a lawsuit filed by Solidarity for Economic Reform, appealed to the highest court two years ago.Before the

Nov. 23, 2011

South Korean stocks retreated 2.36 percent to close at a six-week low on Wednesday, as investors offloaded shares of big caps amid concerns over U.S. economic growth data, analysts said. The local currency dropped against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark KOSPI plunged 43.18 points to 1,783.1, closing below the 1,800 mark for the first time since Oct. 11. Trading volume was moderate at 406.8 million shares worth 4.59 trillion won ($3.99 billion), with decliners far outnumbering gainers 678 to 174.“D

Nov. 23, 2011

Thailand’s ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra said Wednesday he has taken lessons from Korea’s mega river project as a benchmark for his own country’s flood prevention mechanism. The 62-year-old fugitive former leader embarked on a two-day tour on Tuesday to sites that have been refurbished under the 22 trillion won ($19.1 billion) program to ratchet up water security, flood control and beauty in the basins of Korea’s four main rivers – the Han, Geum, Yeongsan and Nakdong.His visit coincides with the

IndustryNov. 23, 2011

POSCO on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding with Google Inc. to share the U.S. search engine company’s technologies to improve its operations and corporate values.The partnership was built upon POSCO chairman Chung Joon-yang’s proposal during Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt’s visit to Korea early this month.Chung and Schmidt discussed how to use Google’s corporate service and future business opportunities, POSCO said.Under the MOU, the steelmaker plans to establish a new manag

IndustryNov. 23, 2011

The Korea Communications Commission granted KT Corp. permission to end its feature phone service beginning on Dec. 8.The state telecom regulator said KT will have two weeks to inform its existing 159,000 feature phone users by at least two different methods ― including mail ― that they will need to change to smartphones running on third generation (3G) networks or choose other mobile service operators.This indicates that KT will begin building ground to launch its fourth generation (4G) network

IndustryNov. 23, 2011

A record number of new companies were set up in October, fueled by people around retirement age entering the service sector, a government report showed Wednesday.The report by the Small and Medium Business Administration said 5,074 companies were founded last month, up 5.2 percent from a year earlier.“In terms of total numbers, last month represents the highest tally for October since the administration started keeping records in 2003,” it said.It said growth was led by a 7.7 percent increase in

Nov. 23, 2011

U.S. drug giants to benefit, while Korean generic production suffersThe country’s pharmaceutical companies face tough times ahead with the new Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement poised to strengthen patent rights for U.S. drug giants, heaping strain on the generic-focused Korean industry.Skyrocketing demand for beauty and health products catapulted Korea to the world’s 12th-largest pharmaceutical market valued at about $10 billion. Medicine takes up about 30 percent of the nation’s entire health ca

IndustryNov. 23, 2011

Korea will finalize by the year-end its blueprint to become one of the world’s three largest nuclear power plant exporters with the U.S. and France by 2030, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said Wednesday. According to the roadmap dubbed “Nu-Tech-2030,” Korea aims to develop its own core technologies by the end of next year and achieve a market share of 20 percent in global nuclear power plant orders by 2030.The country also plans to develop new technologies to enhance the safety of atomic powe

IndustryNov. 23, 2011

The number of social commerce users has more than doubled over the past year with the rising popularity of smartphones and social networking services, a survey said on Wednesday.In the evaluation conducted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry on trends in internet usage, the number of social commerce site visitors rose to an average of 11.54 million people per month in 2011, up from 5.14 million people per month in 2010, it said.The monthly average visitor figures for online shopping ma

IndustryNov. 23, 2011

Agriculture and livestock will be hardest hit by the trade pact between the U.S. and Korea as the lifting of trade barriers will wipe out at least 12.67 trillion won ($10.5 billion) of local production over the next 15 years, the government estimates. Farmers here will face an uphill battle fighting the inflow of cheaper products from the world’s largest economic bloc. The government plans to provide a total of 21.1 trillion won over the next decade on the farming, stockbreeding and fisheries in

Nov. 23, 2011

Hyundai Engineering & Construction, South Korea‘s largest builder, said Wednesday it had completed work on a key gas-to-liquid processing facility in an industrial complex in Qatar.The liquid processing unit is a key facility for Qatar’s Pearl GTL Project in Ras Laffan, an industrial region about 80 kilometers north of the Qatari capital of Doha. The project is the world’s largest gas-to-liquid processing project and aims to refine 140,000 barrels of liquefied natural gas per day. Hyundai E&C wo

IndustryNov. 23, 2011

HONG KONG -- Lotte Mart Co., South Korea‘s third-largest discount chain store, plans to open a new store in a city in north-central China, as part of an effort to boost its presence in the country’s fast-growing retail sector, regional government and business sources said Wednesday. Lotte Mart has agreed with the Henan provincial government to invest 500 million yuan ($78.6 million) to build a discount store in Zhegzhou, the capital city of Henan, official sources said. The announcement comes as

IndustryNov. 23, 2011

South Korea’s retail market growth is expected to slow down next year due mainly to the sluggish economy, which could cause a decline in real income stemming from increasing inflationary pressure, an industry report showed on Wednesday.According to the report by the Shinsegae Retail Research Institute, South Korea’s retail market will grow 6.9 percent on-year to 232 trillion won ($20.2 billion) in 2012, compared with this year’s growth estimate of 8.2 percent and an estimate of 217 trillion won

IndustryNov. 23, 2011