SKT CEO pushes ahead with remote working

SK Telecom CEO Park Jung-ho said Wednesday that the company will allow its employees to work from anywhere. “We need to study how we can improve the ways in which we communicate while working since it is not possible to fully return to the ways we did before (the coronavirus),“ he said. The CEO said the company will try many different solutions, utilizing its data and technology to change the company’s work environment. SKT will increase its number of regional offices, whi

IndustryNov. 18, 2020

GS Caltex gas stations evolve under new brand ‘Energy Plus’

GS Caltex on Wednesday launched its new brand, Energy Plus, to roll out a new type of gas station that can function conventionally and serve as a mobility and logistics hub. According to the South Korean refinery, the company opened Energy Plus Hub in Seocho-gu, Seoul, as the first pump station under the new brand Energy Plus, which can charge electric and hydrogen vehicles and serve as a car-sharing platform and logistics hub for drone shipping. “GS Caltex will continue to transform

IndustryNov. 18, 2020

Netmarble seeks turnaround with newly released Seven Knights 2

Netmarble on Wednesday launched its massively multiplayer online role-playing game Seven Knights 2 in Korea, drawing attention to whether the much-anticipated game will be able to compensate for the company’s lackluster performance in the third quarter. As a sequel of Seven Knights, launched in 2014, Seven Knights 2 continues on the plot lines of the previous work and offers a story that players can consume like a movie. The mobile MMORPG showcases 46 heroes, and players control a gro

IndustryNov. 18, 2020

[Feature] Can Korea handle COVID-19 vaccines?

While the development of COVID-19 vaccines makes the need to store vaccines at low temperatures increasingly urgent, South Korea is proving to be less than prepared. The new vaccines from US companies Pfizer and Moderna are based on messenger RNA (mRNA), and as a result, need to be stored at low temperatures -- minus 70 degrees Celsius for Pfizer’s and minus 20 degrees Celsius for Moderna’s.  When the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and Korea Disease Control and Prevention A

IndustryNov. 18, 2020

Seoul stocks hit nearly 3-year high; Korean won at 29-month high

South Korean shares hit the highest in 33 months Wednesday on a rally in bio stocks amid concerns over a flare-up of new coronavirus outbreaks. The Korean won surged to a 29-month high against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 6.49 points, or 0.26 percent, to close at 2,545.64. The reading marks the highest closing since 2,568.54 points on Feb. 1, 2018. Trading volume was moderate at about 911 million shares worth some 13.3 trillion won ($12 billion),

MarketNov. 18, 2020

FSC, BOK feud over e-payment settlement supervisory power

The financial regulator’s latest move to introduce regulations on the payment settlement system is facing a backlash from the industry, and especially the central bank. The trigger was the revision bill of the Electronic Financial Transactions Act, drafted by the Financial Services Commission and submitted to Rep. Youn Kwan-suk of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, who chairs the parliamentary National Policy Committee. The bill includes e-payment business deregulations for big te

MarketNov. 18, 2020

Economic recovery in Asia-Pacific region to be driven by private consumption: Morgan Stanley

Buoyed by the progress of coronavirus vaccine development and monetary easing policies, expectations are on the rise that the global economy can get itself out of the virus crisis soon. The Asia-Pacific region is predicted to post 9 percent growth in its domestic production rate in 2021, and the robust on-year growth will be driven mainly by a strong recovery in private consumption, according to an Asian branch of investment bank Morgan Stanley on Wednesday. “Private consumption could em

MarketNov. 18, 2020

Shinhan Bank set to bring together finance, retail, telecom with ‘MyData’

  Starting next year, financial consumers will be able to manage their banking histories, shopping patterns at beauty stores as well as cellphone data usage via a single digital platform. Shinhan Bank said Wednesday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with CJ Olive Networks, an online retail arm of CJ Group and Korean mobile carrier LG U+ in order to jointly set up a digital platform for MyData services, the bank said.  MyData is a government-led business model that collect

MarketNov. 18, 2020

Hanjin chief defends merger amid criticism

Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Won-tae said Wednesday that the merger of the nation’s two largest carriers, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, will not lead to price hikes or workforce restructuring. After attending the Korea-US Business Meeting at the Federation of Korean Industries in Seoul, Cho told reporters, “There may be concerns about such a (monopoly),” but “there will be no (lower) customer convenience or price hikes.” Regarding the restructuring of the workfor

MobilityNov. 18, 2020

Bitcoin price hits almost 3-year high as investors seek low-risk assets

The price of largest cryptocurrency Bitcoin reached a recent high dating back nearly three years, rising more than 4 percent within 24 hours amid investors’ rising demand for safe investments, digital currency data showed Wednesday. According to US-based cryptocurrency data provider CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin surpassed the $17,000 per bitcoin mark on Tuesday. The figure was the highest since $20,089 observed in December 2017. As of 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday here, bitcoin traded at $17,769.48,

MarketNov. 18, 2020

Listed firms' earnings rebound in Q3

Listed companies in South Korea posted improved earnings in the third quarter from a quarter ago, possibly signaling a rebound from the previous pandemic-hit quarters this year, data showed Wednesday.  In the July-September period, the combined net profit of 590 out of 655 firms that are listed on the main KOSPI bourse and close their books on Dec. 31 came to 25.6 trillion won ($23.2 billion) on a consolidated basis, up 81.3 percent from three months ago, according to the data compiled by

EconomyNov. 18, 2020

Kiwoom Securities logs biggest Q3 operating profit among brokerages

Kiwoom Securities Co. posted the largest operating income among local brokerage houses in the third quarter on brisk trading by retail investors, data showed Wednesday. Kiwoom Securities' operating profit came to a quarterly record of 355.5 billion won ($322 million) in the July-September period, up 314 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service. The company's net profit also shot up 295 percent from a year earlier to 263.4 billion won, also a rec

IndustryNov. 18, 2020

SK’s ‘Happiness Alliance’ joined by 100 firms

The number of companies joining the “Happiness Alliance,” a social contribution alliance led by SK Group to support children in the blind spots, has surpassed 100, the group said Wednesday. SK Group said it held “2020 Happy Alliance Day” in Seoul on Tuesday to share business results so far. Chairman Chey Tae-won said in the opening speech, “Among many social problems, I thought it was necessary to first solve the problem of children being placed in nutritional i

IndustryNov. 18, 2020

Residents' FX deposits hit record high in Oct.

Foreign currency deposits at banks in South Korea rose to a record high in October as exporters raised dollar holdings amid the country's improving exports, central bank data showed Wednesday.   Outstanding foreign currency-denominated deposits held by residents amounted to $93.32 billion as of end-October, up $7.87 billion from the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).   The tally rebounded from September, when the FX deposits declined for the first time si

EconomyNov. 18, 2020

No. of holding companies in S. Korea declines in 2020

The number of holding companies in South Korea declined this year from a year earlier due largely to a fall in mid-sized holding firms, the country's antitrust regulator said Wednesday. The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) said a total of 167 holding companies were registered with the country's antitrust regulator as of end-September, down from 173 the previous year. The registered holding companies consist of 157 general holding firms and 10 financial ones. A fall in the number of small an

EconomyNov. 18, 2020

KT maintains top spot in pay TV market in H1: data

KT Corp., a South Korean telecom giant, and its affiliate had the most number of pay TV subscribers in the country in the first half of this year, maintaining the top status in terms of market share, ministry data showed Wednesday. The mobile carrier and its satellite TV unit KT Skylife Co. had a combined 31.4 percent share of the market, or 10.7 million subscribers, in the January-June period, followed by LG Uplus Corp. and its pay TV unit LG HelloVision Corp. at a total 25.1 percent, accordin

IndustryNov. 18, 2020

Samsung Engineering wins $135m plant deal in Hungary

Samsung Engineering Co. said Wednesday it has clinched a 150 billion won ($135) order to build a battery copper foil plant in Hungary. The plant, South Korean copper foil maker Doosan Corporation Europe's second, is set to be completed in Tatabanya Industrial Park in Hungary in 2022 and will have an annual production capacity of 15,000 tons of battery copper foil, a key component of electric vehicle batteries. In April, Doosan Corporation Europe, a wholly owned subsidiary of South Korea's Doos

IndustryNov. 18, 2020

[Monitor] Asiana Airlines turns into surplus in Q3

Asiana Airlines said Monday that its operating profit for the third quarter of this year was estimated at 5.8 billion won ($5.24 million), based on separate financial statements. Asiana Airlines, which suffered an operating loss of 45.1 billion won during the same period last year, turned the corner into a surplus. (khnews@heraldcorp.com)

IndustryNov. 18, 2020

Samsung, LG temporarily shut down research labs over virus cases

South Korea's two largest electronics firms -- Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. -- on Wednesday decided to temporarily shut down their research labs after their workers tested positive for the new coronavirus. Samsung said it shuttered a mobile research lab in Suwon, just south of Seoul, after a worker there tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday. The company said it has ordered all employees at the building to work from home, while the floor where the virus-infected employee

IndustryNov. 18, 2020

Seoul stocks open nearly flat on virus flare-up

South Korean shares opened nearly flat Wednesday, as investors remained worried over soaring COVID-19 cases. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 0.16 point, or 0.01 percent, to 2,539.31 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks came to a muted start despite vaccine hopes, as South Korea's new coronavirus cases hovered above 200 for the fourth day in a row Tuesday, with authorities warning that infection cases may further increase due to cluster infections in greater S

MarketNov. 18, 2020