Seoul stocks open higher on Wall Street gains

South Korean shares opened higher Friday on high expectations about the US stimulus package. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 9.5 points, or 0.41 percent, to 2,352.11 in the first 15 minutes of trading. The index got off to a strong start, set to continue its winning streak since Monday. Investor sentiment remained high, largely on expectations that the US stimulus package is nearing an accord. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.68 percent to close at 27,2

MarketAug. 7, 2020

KRX defers decision on SillaJen delisting

South Korea’s sole bourse operator said Thursday that it would further review possible delisting of biotechnology firm SillaJen. SillaJen submitted its business normalization scheme to the bourse operator last month. The KRX’s Kosdaq Market Committee was to decide whether to lift the company’s trading suspension or delist it from the nation’s tech-heavy Kosdaq market. Officials said the committee would resume discussion without setting a date, but that it would be some

MarketAug. 6, 2020

[Market Close-up] Liquidity likely to uphold stock rally

South Korea’s stock market is on a bullish trend, with its main bourse Kospi setting record highs in recent weeks despite lingering concerns over the new coronavirus and its impact on the economy. Buying by foreigners and institutional investors drove the Kospi index to 2,352.48 points in early morning trading Thursday. On Wednesday, the index crossed the 2,300-point mark for the first time since Oct. 2, 2018, and ended at 2,331.86 points. Compared with a low of 1439.43 in March, the

MarketAug. 6, 2020

Nexon enjoys record Q2 revenue despite lackluster Chinese business

Nexon on Thursday posted a record second-quarter revenue of 730.1 billion won ($615.4 million), a 20 percent jump on-year, thanks to the strong sales of both PC and mobile games, despite its lower-than-expected performance in China. The Korean game company witnessed an operating profit of 302.5 billion won, a whopping 106 percent surge on-year in the same period, propelled by the growth of already popular PC games and the success of newly released mobile games based on those popular PC games

IndustryAug. 6, 2020

Dongwon F&B launches Beyond Meat in E-mart ‘Vegan Zones’

Dongwon F&B, the South Korean distributor of the US plant-based meat alternative Beyond Meat, said Thursday that it has launched the product at E-mart, the country’s largest supermarket chain by revenue. The company signed an exclusive contract in 2018 to import Beyond Meat from the US to Korea. After launching the flagship Beyond Burger in March 2019, it sold about 82,000 patties here last year, Dongwon F&B said. The company said it is offering Beyond Burger at the 21 E-mart

ConsumerAug. 6, 2020

[Herald Interview] Arvelle was founded to in-license cenobamate: CEO

Arvelle Therapeutics, founded in 2019, is a Switzerland-based biopharmaceutical company that focuses on innovative central nervous system drugs. The company’s noticeable idiosyncrasy? It has only one pipeline, which happens to be South Korean SK Biopharmaceuticals’ cenobamate, a drug used to treat partial-onset seizures in adults. “Arvelle was founded to in-license cenobamate,” said Mark Altemeyer, CEO of Arvelle, in an exclusive interview with The Korea Herald held acr

IndustryAug. 6, 2020

Korean Air saved by cargo in Q2

Korean Air beat earnings expectations, as it posted an operating profit of 148.5 billion won ($125.2 million) during the second quarter of this year due to its focus on cargo at a time airlines across the world are suffering unprecedented losses. The airline’s overall revenue however dropped by 44 percent compared to the same time last year, according to its tentative financial report released Thursday. But its efforts to streamline the business and prioritize its cargo business seem to

MobilityAug. 6, 2020

HDC shoots back at Kumho

HDC Hyundai Development Company on Thursday blasted at Kumho Industrial as the party responsible for hindering their acquisition deal and said a new round of due diligence is necessary to prevent both firms from facing insolvency together should they push ahead. Kumho owns Asiana Airlines. “We are deeply disappointed that the seller is pinning the blame of breaching the contract on the buyer when HDC Hyundai Development Company has been duly following the acquisition process by procuring

MobilityAug. 6, 2020

Incheon Airport offers lower rent to house duty-free shops

Incheon Airport said Thursday it has begun the bidding process to seek duty-free store operators in new rent deals, as it promised 30 percent lower rent prices than previously proposed to soften the blow from the ongoing pandemic. In a statement, Incheon International Airport Corp., the operator of the airport, explained it is seeking new business partners at Terminal 1, as previously signed contracts will start to expire from August. The bidding process has been launched for six out of the ei

MobilityAug. 6, 2020

Samsung’s online unpacking event draws 56m viewers worldwide

The first online Galaxy Unpacked late Wednesday wrapped up with an accumulated 56 million viewers from around the world, successfully debuting the latest Galaxy products and showing the world the new path Samsung will be heading in the post-COVID-19 era. According to Samsung on Thursday, the total number of viewers who watched the unpacking event streamed live from Korea via various online channels stood at 56 million. On YouTube, the number of concurrent viewers hit 450,000 during the 100

TechnologyAug. 6, 2020

S. Korea’s H1 current account surplus narrows to 8-year low

South Korea saw its current account surplus narrow to an eight-year low in the first half of the year, with the coronavirus pandemic dealing a blow to the global trading system, data from the central bank showed Thursday. The current account surplus for the January-June period came to $19.17 billion, marking the smallest figure since the same period in 2012, the Bank of Korea said. The surplus came to $9.65 billion at the time. The current account surplus measures an economy’s imports

EconomyAug. 6, 2020

Beauty app Zamface attracts W5.5b in series A funding

South Korean beauty video app Zamface said Thursday that it has raised 5.5 billion won ($4.64 million) in series A funding from multiple investors to expand into the Southeast Asian market. STIC Ventures and Timewise investment as well as existing investors Korea Investment Partners joined the round. Series A refers to the first stage of fundraising for a startup after its foundation, as it gears up for full-fledged business operations. Launched in June last year, total downloads of the m

MarketAug. 6, 2020

Mirae Asset Daewoo logs record-high profit in Q2

South Korean brokerage firm Mirae Asset Daewoo posted a second-quarter operating profit of 387.1 billion won ($327 million) and net profit of 304.1 billon won on Thursday on the back of a stock market rally. The operating profit marked a 47.9 percent on-year increase, a 179.2 percent jump from the previous quarter. The figure stood at an all-time quarterly high since its merger with Mirae Asset Securities at the end of December 2016, officials said. It was even 37.1 percent higher than market

MarketAug. 6, 2020

Hyundai Motor, Urban-Air Port to develop urban air mobility

Hyundai Motor will join hands with British mobility company to speed up the development of infrastructure related to urban air mobility, the automaker confirmed Thursday. Hyundai Air Mobility, a unit of Hyundai Motor Group, and UK-based Urban-Air Port agreed to partner to jointly develop infrastructure for urban air mobility, which is urban transportation systems to move people and cargo by air, according to Hyundai Motor. Under the partnership, Hyundai Air Mobility and Urban-Air Port plan

MobilityAug. 6, 2020

FSS' sanction may put brake on Hanwha Life's digital transition

South Korea’s financial watchdog said Thursday it will hold a sanctions committee later this month concerning Hanwha Group’s insurance unit’s financial support for the conglomerate’s duty-free business, posing a threat to the company‘s digital transition drive.  According to the Financial Supervisory Service, Hanwha Life Insurance paid for the interior decoration of Hanwha TimeWorld’s duty-free shop at the 63 Building in Yeouido in Seoul in 2016. 

MarketAug. 6, 2020

S. Korean economy forecast to shrink 1% in 2020

South Korea's economy is expected to contract 1 percent in 2020 from a year earlier due to the coronavirus pandemic, a private think tank said Thursday. The latest growth projection by the LG Economic Research Institute (LGERI) is much lower than its previous estimate of 1.8 percent expansion made in September last year. The think tank, affiliated with South Korea's fourth-largest conglomerate LG Group, predicted Asia's fourth-largest economy will recover and grow 2.5 percent on-year in 2021

EconomyAug. 6, 2020

[Monitor] S. Korean government plans new housing projects on state-owned properties

The South Korean government plans to supply 132,000 housing units in Seoul and its neighboring areas, according to an announcement made by the Finance Ministry on Tuesday. For this, the government has decided to ease regulations for reconstruction of aged apartments, as well as utilizing the government’s idle properties in the metropolitan areas. Of the 132,000 units, 33,000 units will be provided in Seoul by repurposing state-owned properties and public spaces that have been sitting i

IndustryAug. 6, 2020

Seoul stocks open sharply higher on Wall Street gains

South Korean shares opened sharply higher Thursday, taking a cue from overnight gains on Wall Street over economic rebound hopes. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 22.26 points, or 0.96 percent, to 2,334.12 in the first 15 minutes of trading. The index came to a strong start after closing at a nearly two-year high in the previous session. Investor sentiment remained high despite the nationwide downpour and concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. Stocks lifted

MarketAug. 6, 2020

Galaxy Note 20, Z Fold 2 unveiled at first-ever online Galaxy Unpacked show

GOYANG, Gyeonggi Province  -- Defining the current COVID-19 pandemic crisis as the “new normal,” Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest smartphone provider, unveiled its second flagship model for the year Galaxy Note 20 and four new upgraded mobile gadgets during its first-ever online showcase event, streamed live from a studio in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, Wednesday night. Held at the heavily guarded CJ ENM Studio in the planned new city of Ilsan, the noncontact ver

TechnologyAug. 5, 2020

Mercedes-Benz Korea appoints Vice President Kim Jee-seop as interim CEO

Mercedes-Benz Korea said Wednesday it appointed Kim Jee-seop, vice president of customer services department, as interim president and CEO. Bjorn Hauber, president of Mercedes-Benz Sweden and Denmark, was originally appointed as the president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz Korea as of August 1, but could not take the position due to personal reasons, the automaker said. Kim joined Mercedes-Benz Korea in 2002 through the Mercedes-Benz Global Asia Management Associate Program. He worked at the Da

MobilityAug. 5, 2020