Hyundai Card issues W450b green bonds

Hyundai Card, the credit card company under automotive giant Hyundai Motor Group, said Thursday that it has issued 450 billion won ($379 million) in green bonds to fund alternative energy and environmental projects. The won-denominated bonds that mature in one year and two months to 10 years are sold only to Korean institutional investors. The company issued the same bonds in August last year. Proceeds from the green bonds will be used in providing financing for eco-friendly vehicles, such

MarketSept. 10, 2020

SK Biopharmaceuticals plans phase 3 trials of cenobamate in Asia

SK Biopharmaceuticals is on track to conduct phase 3 clinical trials of its novel epilepsy treatment cenobamate in Korea, China and Japan. The company announced Thursday that its phase 3 clinical trial design was approved by Korean drug authorities Wednesday, to be carried out at Seoul National University Hospital. In China, it is awaiting approval from the National Medical Products Administration, after having made the application in June. In Japan, the company is readying the application t

IndustrySept. 10, 2020

Ministries forge team for next-gen semiconductors

The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy launched a government-industry team on Thursday dedicated to developing next-generation semiconductors. The government will inject a total of 1 trillion won ($842.4 million) by 2029, starting this year. The ICT Ministry will provide 488 billion won and the Trade Industry will give 521 billion won. Those joining the state-led team this year include 103 local businesses, 32 universities and 12 research institutions.

TechnologySept. 10, 2020

Seoul stocks rebound on US tech rally, another stimulus measure

South Korean shares closed higher Thursday in sync with the overnight Wall Street rebound and on the back of another stimulus measure amid the pandemic. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 20.67 points, or 0.87 percent, to close at 2,396.48. Trading volume was moderate at about 1.1 billion shares worth some 15.6 trillion won ($13.2 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 596 to 232. Foreigners bought a net 381 billion won

MarketSept. 10, 2020

Standard Chartered CEO mentors university students in S. Korea

London-based Standard Chartered Bank CEO Bill Winters mentored Korean university students seeking careers in finance in an contact-free manner as part of his monthlong visit to the country, the lender’s Korean subsidiary said Thursday. Winters and 13 university students on Wednesday discussed issues related to social finance, changes in the financial environment in the post-COVID-19 era and the “fourth industrial revolution” in the program via videoconferencing, Standard Char

MarketSept. 10, 2020

S. Korea issues $1.45b in forex stabilization fund bonds

The South Korean government’s recent issuance of low-yielding foreign exchange equalization fund bonds indicates the credibility for the fundamentals of Asia’s fourth-largest economy, the country’s top fiscal policymaker said Thursday. “We have been able to reconfirm the overseas investors’ positive assessment of Korea’s economic fundamentals,” the fiscal chief said via Facebook. His remark addressed the government’s earlier announcement that

EconomySept. 10, 2020

Air Busan’s first no-destination flight takes off

Air Busan became the first Korean airline on Thursday to fly a no-destination flight with a select group of passengers. The short-haul flight, which took off around noon from Gimhae International Airport, located on the western end of Busan, traveled over multiple areas of the country including Pohang, Seoul, Gwangju and Jeju Island for nearly two hours before returning to Gimhae. Students from the Department of Airlines and Tourism at Uiduk University were among those on board the plane as pa

MobilitySept. 10, 2020

Korean tech industry braces for new US sanction on Huawei

Korean technology companies are bracing for possible sales declines in the fourth quarter, as the United States is set to cut off China’s tech giant Huawei from various chip supplies starting Tuesday. The semiconductor and display industries are on alert due to the new US sanction that directly bans supplies of memory chips, display panels for TVs and smartphones and parts related to 5G designed using US technologies to Huawei without US approval. “It is impossible to manufactur

TechnologySept. 10, 2020

Doosan Heavy to join hands with KNOC for offshore wind farms

Power plant builder Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co. said Thursday it has signed a preliminary deal with the Korea National Oil Corp. (KNOC) to develop a floating offshore wind farm. Under the deal, Doosan Heavy will provide floating wind turbines, while the state-run oil company will work on the overall procedures to build the floating offshore wind farm in the East Sea, the power plant builder said. In July, the government said it plans to start building the floating offshor

EconomySept. 10, 2020

LG Chem flies unmanned aerial vehicle with next-gen battery

LG Chem became the first company in Korea to fly an unmanned aerial vehicle using next-generation lithium-sulfur battery into the 22-kilometer-high stratosphere, the company said Thursday. The test flight, conducted on Aug. 30 jointly with Korea Aerospace Research Institute, flew the high-altitude solar unmanned aerial vehicle EAV-3 equipped with lithium-sulfur battery for a total of 13 hours. During the flight, EAV-3 was able to stably operate in the 12- to 22-kilometer-high stratosphere fo

IndustrySept. 10, 2020

Kakao Games makes stellar stock market debut, lands No. 5 on Kosdaq

Kakao Games, the gaming arm of Korean mobile messenger giant Kakao, made a strong market debut on the tech-heavy Kosdaq on Thursday, trading at more than double its initial public offering price. Shares of Kakao Games began trading at 48,000 won ($40.50), twice the offering price. The opening price of a newly listed stock is determined between 8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. in the first trading session and it can reach up to 200 percent of its IPO price, according to the nation’s sole bourse oper

MarketSept. 10, 2020

S. Korean snack firm Orion to build new plant in Russia

Orion Corp., a major South Korean confectionery company, said Thursday it will build a new factory in Russia to meet growing demand for its products in the Russian and Central Asian markets. The new production facility will be built in the Tver Region in western Russia at a cost of some 80 billion won ($67.5 million), the company said. Ground was already broken for the envisioned plant in July for completion by 2022, and an investment deal was signed with the government of the Tver Region on

IndustrySept. 10, 2020

No. of reported offshore account holders jumps 24%

The number of foreign account holders that reported to the National Tax Service surged 24 percent on-year to 2,685 worth nearly 60 trillion won, data showed Thursday. In June, 1,889 residents of Korea reported accounts to NTS, each holding a balance of 4.2 billion won on average, while 796 Seoul-based corporations documented accounts, with an average balance of 65.2 billion won. Their total account balance came to 59.9 trillion won ($50.5 billion), down 2.6 percent from the previous year. The n

MarketSept. 10, 2020

4th extra budget aims to help small merchants gripped by virus resurgence

SEJONG -- A fourth supplementary budget worth 7.8 trillion won ($6.6 billion) is mainly aimed at helping small merchants and self-employed people cushion the economic impact of a recent resurgence of the new coronavirus. The additional fiscal boost came less than a month after health authorities tightened social distancing rules to contain a new wave of contagion, amid growing concerns that the nation's economic slump may be deeper than expected. Presiding over an emergency economic council m

EconomySept. 10, 2020

Hyundai Motor launches hydrogen campaign in Europe

Hyundai Motor said Thursday that it will launch a global “Hydrogen to you” campaign starting in Europe to promote sustainable energy hydrogen with its fuel cell vehicle Nexo. The automaker said the campaign will promote its leadership in hydrogen fuel cell technology, sustainable future mobility and the establishment of hydrogen ecosystem via video and social media from this month until next August. The “Hydrogen to you” campaign is aimed at professionals in the aut

MobilitySept. 10, 2020

[News Analysis] Will trade relations change under new Japanese PM?

As Yoshihide Suga, Japan’s chief Cabinet secretary and front-runner to replace outgoing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is seen as likely to carry forward his predecessor’s hard-line stance on South Korea, it is difficult to expect a major change in the strained trade relations between the two countries, experts say. Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party is to hold a leadership election on Monday. Suga is estimated to have secured more than 70 percent of the party’s parlia

IndustrySept. 10, 2020

[Monitor] Dependence on coal to drop 0.7% yearly: report

Dependence on coal is expected to decrease by an average of 0.7 percent per year, a report by the Korea Energy Economics Institute said Wednesday. By 2024, the consumption proportion of coal is forecast to drop below 25 percent, it said. While demand for industrial coal in making steel will increase somewhat post-COVID19 as the world economy turns to recovery, demand from other sectors such as in cement manufacturing is expected to continue to decrease, the report said. Coal-fired electrici

IndustrySept. 10, 2020

Kakao Games makes splash in KOSDAQ debut

Kakao Games, the game developing unit of South Korean mobile giant Kakao, made a strong market debut Thursday, trading at more than double the initial public offering (IPO) price. As of 10:10 a.m., Kakao Games traded at 48,000 won ($40.49), twice the IPO price, and instantly surged by the daily permissible limit of 30 percent to 62,400 won per share. Its market capitalization stood at 4.6 trillion won, the fifth largest on the secondary, tech-laden KOSDAQ market. The game publisher raised s

EconomySept. 10, 2020

Seoul stocks open sharply higher on Wall Street rebound

South Korean shares opened sharply higher Thursday, tracking an overnight rebound on Wall Street. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 26.48 points, or 1.11 percent, to 2,402.29 in the first 15 minutes of trading. The index got off to a strong start after a 1.09 percent fall the previous session. Tech shares soared, taking a cue from a rebound in US tech heavyweights. The tech-laden Nasdaq composite rose 293.87 points, or 2.71 percent, to 11,141.56 on Wednesday (New

MarketSept. 10, 2020

TVXQ’s Yunho stars in Shinhan’s campaign for millennials

K-pop duo TVXQ’s Yunho was featured in a promotional video for Shinhan Financial Group’s campaign promoting healthy lifestyles for millennials, launched Wednesday. Participants in the three-month social media campaign will receive five tasks to complete every two weeks, designed to “boost their confidence” in areas tied to hobbies, perceptions of the environment and society, talent, exercise and networking. They can then upload photos or videos on social media showing

MarketSept. 9, 2020