Lotte Group steps closer to Ministop Korea acquisition

Korea’s retail giant Lotte Group is highly likely to be picked as a preferred bidder to acquire the nation’s fifth-largest convenience store chain Ministop Korea, according to industry sources Wednesday. Lotte reportedly offered the highest bidding price -- 300 billion won ($251.5 million) -- possibly leaving out its crosstown rival Shinsegae Group in the heated race. “Since Lotte has outbid other contenders, there’s a 99.9 percent chance of Lotte becoming the prefer

ConsumerJan. 19, 2022

Minister warns against campaign pledges affecting home prices

SEJONG -- Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki raised the possibility that the housing market could be swayed by pledges of presidential candidates, and suggested he would try to block any speculative actions in particular regions via close monitoring. During a meeting of ministers in charge of real estate policies on Wednesday, Hong said there are symptoms that “home prices in some regions have been affected by pledges over large-scale development during the presidentia

MarketJan. 19, 2022

S. Korea, Saudi Arabia to bolster ties on hydrogen economy

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman held a meeting in Riyadh Tuesday to bolster ties between the two countries beyond construction and infrastructure into more future-oriented fields such as hydrogen. During the talks, the two leaders agreed to build a hydrogen ecosystem where Saudi Arabia supplies carbon-neutral hydrogen and ammonia while South Korea helps the Arab nation operate hydrogen-powered cars and hydrogen facilit

IndustryJan. 19, 2022

LG Electronics mulls Middle East HQ in Riyadh

In the face of the Saudi Arabian government’s pledge to attract foreign companies to relocate their regional headquarters to its capital city of Riyadh, LG Electronics is being pressured to move on par with other multinational companies. According to LG Electronics and news reports, the tech company, dedicated to manufacturing TVs, monitors, laptops and home appliances, is considering establishing regional headquarters that oversees its operation in the Middle East and Africa, covering s

TechnologyJan. 19, 2022

Korea to invest additional W400b in AI chips

The South Korean government said on Wednesday it will invest 402.7 billion won ($337.4 million) in the development of processing-in-memory (PIM) chips, in addition to the 1 trillion won it pledged earlier to spend on artificial intelligence semiconductors over nine years to 2029. PIM semiconductors are known as next-generation AI chips with higher processing efficiency. The Ministry of Science and ICT said it discussed ways to advance the AI industry with AI experts from Samsung Electronics, L

TechnologyJan. 19, 2022

Number of fake banknotes hits record low in 2021 amid pandemic

The number of fake South Korean banknotes touched a record low in 2021 due largely to the coronavirus pandemic, the central bank said Wednesday. The number of counterfeit banknotes found in Asia's fourth-largest economy stood at 176 last year, down 96 from a year earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). It marked the lowest tally since the BOK began releasing such data in 1998. The number of fake bills has renewed record lows for four years running. The drop was mainly due to a decline

EconomyJan. 19, 2022

Seoul stocks open lower on US tech plunge

South Korean stocks opened lower Wednesday, tracking an overnight plunge on Wall Street amid heightened expectations of a rate hike by the Federal Reserve. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) declined 19.22 points, or 0.67 percent, to 2,845.02 points in the first 15 minutes of trading.  On Tuesday (local time), the Dow Jones industrial average fell 1.51 percent, the S&P 500 went down 1.84 percent and the Nasdaq, which is heavily weighted with technology stocks, de

MarketJan. 19, 2022

State pension fund cuts exposure to domestic shares in 2021

South Korea's state pension fund lowered its exposure to large cap and other domestic shares in 2021 in an apparent bid to boost returns and diversify its portfolio, a corporate tracker said Wednesday. The National Pension Service (NPS) held stakes of 5 percent or more in 265 companies listed on the country's major and secondary bourses as of end-2021, down 10 from a year earlier, according to CEO Score. Compared with two years earlier, the number was down as many as 49. Last year, the state

MarketJan. 19, 2022

Housing prices to further stabilize on monetary tightening: finance minister

Housing prices are expected to further stabilize due largely to the central bank's rate hikes and the Federal Reserve's push for faster monetary tightening, Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said Wednesday. Hong also voiced concerns that home prices in some regions could show signs of unstable movements due to presidential election candidates' campaign pledges on large-scale development. "Housing prices have recently stabilized," Hong said at a government meeting on the housing market. H

EconomyJan. 19, 2022

Africa Finance Corp. secures new funders from South Korea, Dubai

Africa Finance Corp., which focuses on infrastructure across the continent, raised $400 million in a syndicated loan to bolster its balance sheet as the region seeks to recover from the coronavirus pandemic. The three-year facility, the first by the development-finance institution since 2018, was 2.5 times oversubscribed and was increased from an initial target of $300 million, it said in a statement on Tuesday. While the funds mostly replaced maturing debt, the fund raising attracted new lende

BusinessJan. 18, 2022

Korea Exchange decides to delist SillaJen

The Korea Exchange on Tuesday announced its decision to delist biotech company SillaJen, 20 months after the biotech company’s market transactions were stopped due to breach of trust and embezzlement charges. The stock market operator will hold a Kosdaq market committee within the next 20 business days to finalize whether it will push ahead with the delisting decision or give SillaJen a second chance at revival. Although the company can raise an objection to the market committee if it o

MarketJan. 18, 2022

After failed merger, Hyundai Heavy secures cash to nurture new growth engines

Hyundai Heavy Industries’ failed acquisition of its smaller rival Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering may be a boon for the nation’s largest shipbuilder as it has secured abundant cash to focus on new growth engine businesses such as hydrogen, autonomous driving and robots. Last week, the European Commission disapproved the merger plan of the two Korean shipbuilders over monopoly concerns. With the veto by the world’s largest shipbuilding market, Hyundai Heavy saw it

IndustryJan. 18, 2022

Staying in business for 5 years difficult for startups, self-employed: data

SEJONG -- A large portion of startups and the self-employed failed in less than five years while suffering from fears of possible financial insolvency due to heavy debt, data from Statistics Korea and credit rating firm NICE showed Tuesday. Their unstable status was found to have started years before COVID-19 hit the nation. According to Statistics Korea, the median individual startup stayed in business for just 2.6 years. The journal in which it was published conducted research on the operatio

EconomyJan. 18, 2022

Car exports grow 24.2% on strong sales of hybrids

South Korea posted $46.47 billion in car exports last year, up 24.2 percent from the previous year which was hit hard by COVID-19, government data showed on Tuesday. Export volume surged 8.6 percent to 2.05 million units, marking the first time in nine years to see exports rise in both volume and value. The country’s car production and sales volume at home, on the other hand, dropped 1.3 percent on-year to 3.46 million units and 8.5 percent to 1.73 million units, respectively. The Minis

IndustryJan. 18, 2022

Seegene exports 5.1m COVID-19 test kits to Israel

South Korea's molecular diagnostics company Seegene Inc. said Tuesday it has exported 5.1 million COVID-19 test kits to Israel. The company already delivered 1.7 million diagnostic tests last month and is scheduled to deliver an additional 3.4 million tests kits this month. Israel has recently experienced a shortage of COVID-19 tests amid the fast spread of the omicron variant and an unprecedented surge in new cases following the winter flu season. Seegene said its delivery of COVID-19 diagno

IndustryJan. 18, 2022

KT teams up with Russia’s Yandex to debut delivery robots

South Korean telecom carrier KT looks to launch autonomous delivery vehicles in Korea before the end of 2022 by partnering with Russian autonomous rover maker Yandex Self-Driving Group, KT said Tuesday. The two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding at a Yandex office in Moscow, and are at an early stage of cooperation to integrate KT‘s artificial intelligence and digital capability with Yandex’s self-driving technology. KT added the MOU, in addition to its launch pla

TechnologyJan. 18, 2022

Hyundai Motor’s used car market entry blurry after ministry puts on hold

Hyundai Motor Group’s launch of B2C secondhand car business has met with headwind after the ministry put a halt on the business launch temporarily, according to the industry on Tuesday.  The Ministry of SMEs and Startups last week advised the nation’s largest carmaker to temporarily suspend the launch of the certified used car sales business here. The advisory comes after the country’s association of used car dealership asked the ministry to intervene the automotive congl

MobilityJan. 18, 2022

Samsung unveils Exynos 2200 mobile processor with AMD’s GPU

Samsung Electronics said Tuesday it has teamed up with California-based chip maker Advanced Micro Devices to unveil its flagship Exynos 2200 processor chips for mobile phones, in a delayed announcement by a week. The partnership with AMD in Samsung’s processor business has boosted energy efficiency and graphic processing performance compared to predecessors like Exynos 2100, the company said. Manufactured in Samsung‘s cutting-edge 4 nanometer extreme ultraviolet lithography proces

TechnologyJan. 18, 2022

S. Korea's instant meals market skyrockets 145% over 4 years

The South Korean market of instant meals jumped more than 145 pct in 2020 from four years earlier on the increased number of convenience stores and the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Tuesday. Shipments of ready-to-eat items, known as home meal replacement (HMR) products in South Korea, came to 2.01 trillion won ($1.7 billion) in 2020, up a whopping 145.3 percent from 2016, according to the data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food T

EconomyJan. 18, 2022

Samsung registers robot brand ‘Samsung Bot’ in US, Canada

Samsung Electronics is expected to introduce household robots under the brand “Samsung Bot” in the North American market. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization on Tuesday, the South Korean tech giant recently completed a trademark registration of Samsung Bot in the US and Canada. Samsung Bot encompasses all types of applications including industrial robots, exoskeleton robots, robot vacuum machines, robot kitchen utensils, humanoids and server robots, the compan

IndustryJan. 18, 2022