IOC welcomes Kyobo chairman as head of Youth Olympic committee

The International Olympic Committee has sent a congratulatory letter to life insurance firm Kyobo Life Chairman Shin Chang-jae, who has been appointed as the organizing chief for the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games. While congratulating Shin’s appointment, Thomas Bach, the IOC president, expressed expectations for the quadrennial global sports event, which is scheduled to be held in Gangwon Province. “Considering the chairman’s contributions to youth sports and cult

MarketSept. 17, 2020

Individual investors pour W100tr into stocks during pandemic

The amount of money local retail investors have poured in the local and overseas stock markets has reached more than 100 trillion won ($85.2 billion), according to data released by the nation’s sole securities operator Korean Exchange on Thursday. Individual traders bought a total of 55.9 trillion won in the local market this year as of Wednesday. Of the total, 43.5 trillion won went to the main bourse Kospi, and the rest, or 12.4 trillion won, to the tech-heavy Kosdaq. Investor deposit

MarketSept. 17, 2020

[Gadget Review] Swiveling LG Wing shows what we may have been missing

Before getting my hands on the LG Wing, I had no idea why we would need a screen that spins around. But once I got to swivel the main screen -- with the transition so incredibly suave thanks to the built-in hydraulic damper -- it was, indeed, a whole new experience. With the 6.8-inch P-OLED Full Vision display swiveled 90 degrees to set it horizontally, the LG phone offered the best conditions that vertical square-shape smartphones can offer for watching movies and taking photos or v

TechnologySept. 17, 2020

Fiscal chief urges for extra budget approval by next Tuesday

South Korea’s fiscal chief on Thursday asked the National Assembly to approve the recently submitted fourth supplementary budget bill by early next week, aiming at handing out emergency relief funds ahead of the Chuseok holiday. He also pledged to help small business owners digitalize their operations by providing online delivery systems to offline stores and traditional markets, in an extended effort to revamp the economy in the post-coronavirus era. “Sept. 22 is the eff

EconomySept. 17, 2020

KB Financial chief vows to boost shares via strong portfolio

KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo, who is likely to keep his role for another three-year term, pledged Thursday to boost the firm’s shares with a strong and versatile portfolio. “As you can see, KB’s shares have remained at a disastrous level for some time, which reflects concerns surrounding South Korea’s economy and finance coupled with doubts about traditional institutions’ competitiveness in the contactless era,” Yoon told reporters on his way to

MarketSept. 17, 2020

[Herald Interview] Pandemic brings virtual care front and center

Health care is definitely an industrial sector that has been greatly influenced by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Rianne Meijerman, head of consumer marketing at multinational health care solution provider Royal Philips, sums up the latest changes in the market as an “acceleration of virtual care” and the “health continuum.” “This pandemic has brought virtual health care to the front and center,” Meijerman said in a virtual interview with The Korea Herald

TechnologySept. 17, 2020

[News Focus] Korea’s national debt to top 800 trillion won

SEJONG -- South Korea’s national debt is projected to surpass 800 trillion won ($682 billion) in the coming weeks, marking the first time in its history. The growth pace is proving serious in the wake of the government’s active allocation of supplementary budgets. The national debt is a core indicator for fiscal soundness, reflecting liabilities held by the central and local governments at home and abroad. According to the National Assembly Budget Office, the sovereign debt was es

EconomySept. 17, 2020

LG Chem’s battery biz to break away as LG Energy Solution

LG Chem said Thursday it had approved the split-off of its globally leading battery business to establish a wholly owned battery subsidiary and shore up investments through a public listing in the future.　 In a board meeting convened Thursday, LG Chem decided to split off the battery business division on Dec. 1 and form LG Energy Solution, which will manufacture electric vehicle batteries, small-sized batteries and energy storage systems. LG Chem has been running four businesses sep

IndustrySept. 17, 2020

[Market Close-up] Pandemic polarizes risk appetite in real estate investment

Representatives of South Korean institutional investors said Tuesday they were increasingly tapping into distressed asset classes in their capital deployment to real estate assets, as the novel coronavirus disruption in the market is upping the appetite for the two extremes: very safe and very risky. The so-called “barbell strategy” is playing out to fight the downside impact of COVID-19, amid heightening pressure to deploy capital, institutional investors said during PERE Investor

MarketSept. 17, 2020

Seoul stocks dip over 1% on profit-taking

South Korean stocks decreased more than 1 percent Thursday, as more investors turned to profit-taking that stemmed from tech valuation concerns. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) dropped 29.75 points, or 1.22 percent, to close at 2,406.17. Trading volume was moderate at about 834 million shares worth some 13.9 trillion won ($11.8 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 655 to 200. Foreigners sold a net 126 billion won, whil

MarketSept. 17, 2020

Toss users spend 65% of cash relief within month: data

Users of Toss, a local financial services app operated by Viva Republica, spent 65 percent of their disaster relief funds in less than a month, the company said Thursday, referring to its data analysis. According to the estimate, 65 percent of the total 395.2 billion won ($336.5 million) in spending by 778,000 recipients was spent before end-May, after the Korean government started to dole out some 14 trillion won to every Korean household that month. Viva Republica compiled the data from use

EconomySept. 17, 2020

FSS to allow full-time connection to internal network at financial firms

To facilitate remote working amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, the nation’s financial watchdog will ease restrictions on external access to network systems at local financial companies.  The Financial Supervisory Service said Thursday it would allow employees to stay connected to the company’s internal communication software throughout the day by revising the regulations on the supervision of electronic finance, which stipulate the so-called “network separation syst

MarketSept. 17, 2020

SK Holdings secures W480b through block sale of ESR shares

SK Holdings has raised 480 billion won ($409 million) by selling shares of logistics operator e-Shang Redwood Group through a block deal, with plans to invest the newly secured capital in its future growth engines, the company said Thursday. The deal saw 140 million shares sold at 22.50 Hong Kong dollars ($2.90) per share, accounting for 4.6 percent of the total stock, as SK Holdings collected the principal. Following the sale, SK Holdings now owns 6.4 percent of stock in the company, a share

IndustrySept. 17, 2020

Korean Air injects W1.1tr into Hanjin International to keep hotel business afloat

Korean Air announced on Thursday it was injecting 1.1 trillion won into its subsidiary company Hanjin International to help pay off its debts and keep the latter’s hotel business afloat. The decision was made during a board of directors meeting on Wednesday, which will help pay back HIC’s debt worth $900 million while $50 million will be used to cover operating expenses for the Wilshire Grand Center in Downtown Los Angeles, a hotel HIC has operated since 2017. The airline said the

IndustrySept. 17, 2020

Foreign currency deposits hit new high in Aug.

Foreign currency deposits at banks in South Korea touched a new all-time high in August as companies boosted dollar holdings, central bank data showed Thursday. Outstanding foreign currency-denominated deposits held by residents came to $88.5 billion as of end-August, up $1.14 billion from the previous month, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The August amount was the largest tally since the central bank began to compile related data in June 2012. Foreign currency deposits

MarketSept. 17, 2020

Hyundai Glovis partners with Thailand’s business giant on logistics

Hyundai Glovis said Thursday it partnered with Thailand’s No. 1 business group, Charoen Pokphand Group, to target the country’s logistics market. Under the partnership, the two companies will start a pilot project by the end of this year by injecting electric trucks into the transportation of convenience store 7-Eleven’s products operated by CP Group across Thailand. This is expected to be the first time for an electric truck to be introduced to a Thai logistics site, the Ko

IndustrySept. 17, 2020

Hyundai’s all-new Tucson surpasses 10,000 precontracts

Hyundai Motor said Thursday that it has received 10,842 precontracts on launch day for its new sport utility vehicle, the all-new Tucson, in South Korea. It is the first SUV model to surpass the 10,000 mark on the first day, the automaker said. The New Grandeur, launched last year, sold 17,294 units and the new Avante sold 10,058 units on the day of its release earlier this year. The latest SUV was introduced at an online world premiere event on Tuesday, drawing 410,000 viewers from around

MobilitySept. 17, 2020

Samsung Biologics signs CDO deal with Panolos Bioscience

Samsung Biologics signed to contract develop Panolos Bioscience‘s novel anti-cancer drug candidate PB101, the company announced Thursday. Per contract, Samsung Biologics will be responsible for all steps of PB101’s development, including cell line development, preclinical and global clinical trials’ sample manufacturing and investigational new drug applications. Panolos Bioscience’s next-generation anti-cancer pipeline PB101 fights cancer by inhibiting the growth of tum

IndustrySept. 17, 2020

Server DRAM prices tipped to decline further in Q4, boding ill for Korean chipmakers

Prices for server DRAM chips are expected to further decline in the fourth quarter of the year, a report showed Thursday, boding ill for South Korean chipmakers amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. Market researcher TrendForce recently revised its server DRAM prices forecast for the last three months of 2020, saying that server manufacturers still hold a relatively high inventory of the product, while the industry is dealing with an oversupply issue. It originally predicted a 10-15 percent

IndustrySept. 17, 2020

[Monitor] Korea's COVID-19 test kit exports expected to surpass W1tr

Exports of Korean-made diagnostic kits for COVID-19 radically surged this year, reaching a total of over $797 million (about 940.5 billion won) by Aug. 20, data from the Korea Customs Service showed. While the exact data has not been released yet, the amount is expected to have surpassed 1 trillion won at the end of August.  (khnews@heraldcorp.com)

IndustrySept. 17, 2020