Renault Samsung, union tentatively OK wage deal for 2019

Renault Samsung Motors Corp. said Friday it has reached a tentative agreement with its union over wages for last year as the automobile industry tries to cope with the coronavirus outbreak, the company said Friday. Renault Samsung workers accepted a wage freeze and will be paid cash bonuses of 8.88 million won ($7,320) per person for 2019, the company said in a statement. "The company and the union have reached a consensus that they will have to make joint efforts to weather an industry-

MobilityApril 10, 2020

Baedal Minjok apologizes for new fee system, decides to take back

Baedal Minjok, which has come under fire for the introduction of a restructured commission system, on Friday issued a public apology and said it would be returning to the previous fee structure. The country’s No. 1 delivery app operator Baemin recently took public flak after it announced it would expand the fixed-rate commission system from April 1, while scaling back the more preferred flat-sum system. Woowa Brothers’ Chief Executive and founder Kim Bong-jin and CEO Kim Beom-jo

IndustryApril 10, 2020

Porsche Korea donates W200m for COVID-19 relief efforts

Porsche Korea said Friday that it has donated 200 million won ($166,000) to ChildFund Korea with its four authorized dealer partners -- Stuttgart Sports Cars, Autostadt, Deutsch Auto Co. and Yongsan Sports Automobile -- for coronavirus relief efforts. The donation will be used under two categories “Porsche Do Dream Safe Kit” and “Porsche Do Dream Safe Fund.” Recipients will be children in low-income families and vulnerable groups who have been experiencing difficulties

MobilityApril 10, 2020

Busan mayor visits Renault Samsung’s Busan plant to encourage workers

Busan Mayor Oh Keo-don visited Renault Samsung’s Busan plant Friday to encourage workers amid the continued economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. According to the automaker, Oh also met with Renault Samsung CEO Dominique Signora and the labor union, vowing to support them to overcome the current crisis. Renault Samsung said that he appreciated workers at the facility for working hard and focusing on manufacturing major vehicle lineups.  He also discussed with Signora

MobilityApril 10, 2020

Korean firms rush to sell assets amid high uncertainty

South Korean businesses are increasingly selling assets in a bid to secure liquidity by hoarding cash amid high uncertainty triggered by the novel coronavirus outbreak, according to industry sources Friday. Hyundai Steel, a steelmaking affiliate of Hyundai Motor Group, has decided to sell one of its corporate buildings in Seocho-gu, southern Seoul. The building in Jamwon-dong, an affluent neighborhood in the area, has been used for the company’s sales operations. “It is hard t

IndustryApril 10, 2020

Korean banks flock to Myanmar for ‘next big market’

Major South Korean lenders are gearing to start business in Myanmar, hoping to sustain their momentum in the Southeast Asian region. Korea Development Bank, Industrial Bank of Korea and KB Kookmin Bank obtained preliminary approval from the central bank in Myanmar earlier in the week, industry sources said Friday. KDB was granted preliminary approval from the Central Bank of Myanmar a day prior to open a new branch in Yangon, the country’s largest city. It marks the first time in 22 yea

MarketApril 10, 2020

ULikeKorea’s tech catches early-stage bovine coronavirus

ULikeKorea, a livestock health care company, said Friday it has successfully detected early-stage bovine coronavirus in South Korea and Japan. Coronavirus is prevalent in animals, and few are lethal to humans and cause respiratory infections like the COVID-19, Middle East respiratory syndrome and severe acute respiratory syndrome. Coronaviruses are ribonucleic acid virus that are prone to mutation, and have the possibility of animal-to-human and human-to-animal infections, uLikeKorea CEO Kim

IndustryApril 10, 2020

Samsung Biologics to manufacture Vir’s COVID-19 treatment starting 2021

Samsung Biologics on Friday signed a binding letter of intent worth 440 billion won ($363 million) to manufacture US-based Vir’s COVID-19 treatment, starting 2021. It is the biggest single deal Samsung Biologics has taken since its 2016 initial public offering. Vir’s SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody (mAb) candidates VIR-7831 and VIR-7832 have demonstrated high potency in neutralizing the SARS-CoV-2 in live-virus cellular assays. The molecules were approved for fast-track developme

IndustryApril 10, 2020

Seoul stocks up for 2nd day on US stimulus measure

South Korean shares ended higher for the second straight session Friday on improved investor sentiment over the United States' latest stimulus effort meant to minimize the economic fallout from the new coronavirus. The Korean won sharply rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 24.46 points, or 1.33 percent, to 1,860.67. Huh Jae-hwan, a strategist at Eugene Investment Co., said the US Federal Reserve's provision of liquidity programs that also i

MarketApril 10, 2020

Duty free giants withdraw from Incheon airport first time

Duty-free operators, including local No. 1 Lotte Duty Free and runner-up Shilla Duty Free, have given up their preferred bidder positions for operation licenses at Incheon Airport, amid the ongoing tug-of-war between the companies and airport over rental fees. It is the first time for the conglomerates to withdraw from signing operation contracts due to rental prices, according to industry sources Friday. Incheon International Airport Corp. announced the preferred bidders to operate eight ai

ConsumerApril 10, 2020

Sencoretech’s listing plan is litmus test for Korean IPO market

Attention is centered on what is poised to become the only initial public offering deal in April, as investors are hinging on a change in market tides. Starting Monday, Sencoretech -- a Seoul-based engineering firm dedicated to manufacturing steel structure -- will go on a two-day institutional investor tranche to confirm the IPO price, estimated to be at least 27.16 billion won ($22.35 million). Samsung Securities is a lead underwriter for the IPO on the development bourse Kosdaq. This comes

MarketApril 10, 2020

VIG Partners to acquire funeral service firm

South Korea’s midcap buyout fund VIG Partners said Friday it plans to acquire the nation’s leading funeral service firm Preedlife. While neither the acquisition price nor the amount of stake were disclosed, the transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2020. This comes amid the private equity firm’s move to carry out a bolt-on strategy, under which its existing portfolio firms Jounlife and Preedlife will be combined to become the biggest funeral goods and servi

MarketApril 10, 2020

Seoul stocks down late Friday morning

South Korean shares traded lower late Friday morning as investors attempted to cash in recent gains amid a lack of upside momentum. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index shed 9.52 points, or 0.52 percent, to 1,826.69 as of 11:15 a.m. The main index opened higher, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street on the back of the United States' latest stimulus effort meant to minimize the economic fallout from the new coronavirus. US stocks rose after the US Federal Reserve unveiled program

MarketApril 10, 2020

SK Innovation exec highlights safety as top corporate priority

Companies that fail to shift their paradigms in terms of safety will fall behind others in the long run, said an executive at SK Innovation, a leading oil refinery and battery maker in South Korea on Friday. Yoo Jae-young, head of safety, health and environment division at the company, said in an internal interview that SK Innovation has turned the latest coronavirus outbreak into an opportunity that has enhanced its workplace environment monitoring system. “The company has stepped up

TechnologyApril 10, 2020

EvidNet supports global data research to fight COVID-19

After the World Health Organization declared a COVID-19 pandemic, global health care researchers are becoming more interested in South Korea’s experience and data. The country is becoming a center of research on international clinical data to overcome COVID-19 based on data of treatment information and progress in Korean patients. EvidNet, which has built up clinical data of 27 general hospitals in Korea as well as 33 million hospitals that are part of the standard data network, began re

TechnologyApril 10, 2020

Shinhan Card launches facial recognition payment system

Shinhan Card said Thursday it has launched a facial recognition-based payment system that replaces the use of plastic cards for purchases. Branded as Shinhan Face Pay, the new payment system is the first service of its kind here, the local credit card issuer said. To authorize payment, customers take a photo of their faces and a kiosk then matches their facial information with the one registered in advance at Shinhan Bank’s local branches. “As long as customers register their ph

MarketApril 10, 2020

Moorim’s biodegradable paper cup wins first European green certificate

Paper manufacturer Moorim said Tuesday it is the first South Korean company to receive a biodegradable certification from a European institution for its paper cup products. The company’s biodegradable paper cup with water-based coating received “OK compost” certification from TUV AUSTRIA in March, a 140-year old European certification institution. Moorim’s Neoforet Cup can be biodegraded 100 percent within 45 days after use, while typical paper cups can’t be dec

IndustryApril 10, 2020

[Newsmaker] Animal Crossing exposes Korea’s selective boycott of Japanese products

The explosive demand for Nintendo Switch video game console in South Korea has reignited debate about the selective approach to boycott of Japanese products by local citizens. According to Korean game distributor Daewon Media on Tuesday -- which retails more than half of Nintendo’s products here -- demand for the console has spiked following the recent release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Nintendo is a multinational video game giant headquartered in Japan, with offices in the US a

IndustryApril 10, 2020

[Photo News] Unexpected job interview with CEO

SK Innovation President and CEO Kim Jun (right) conducts a job interview with a candidate via video conference amid concerns over the coronavirus outbreak at the company’s headquarters in Jongro-gu, Seoul, Wednesday.   Kim called for “unprecedented measures to overcome unprecedented times.”  Candidates were not informed of the CEO’s participation in advance. (khnews@heraldcorp.com)

IndustryApril 9, 2020

Samsung requests compliance committee to defer Lee Jae-yong’s apology to May

Samsung Electronics has requested an external compliance monitoring committee to defer the timing of its heir’s public apology to next month, according to the committee Thursday. The committee led by former Chief Justice Kim Ji-hyung last month had urged Samsung Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong to apologize to the public on the group’s past scheme to succeed leadership from Chairman Lee Kun-hee. The letter was sent to seven Samsung affiliates governed by Lee, offering 30 days of consid

IndustryApril 9, 2020