Kyobo Life Insurance vows push for IPO despite court ruling

Kyobo Life Insurance, one of South Korea's leading life insurers, said Friday it will press ahead with an initial public offering (IPO), despite a court ruling that could get in the way of its move. A day earlier, a Seoul court acquitted officials of Affinity Equity Partners and accountants with Deloitte Anjin on the charge of colluding to inflate the strike price of the fund's put option. The Hong Kong-based private equity fund said it will seek a second arbitration to resolve the legal dispute

IndustryFeb. 11, 2022

S. Korea's tax revenue up W58.5tr last year amid economic recovery

South Korea's tax revenue rose 58.5 trillion won ($48.7 billion) in 2021 from a year earlier amid the economic recovery and rises in housing prices, the finance ministry said Friday. The government collected 344.1 trillion won in taxes last year, compared with 285.5 trillion won the previous year, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The country's tax revenue increased last year after the second consecutive year of decline. In 2020, the tax revenue fell 7.9 trillion won due to the

EconomyFeb. 11, 2022

Sampyo Industry booked as 1st firm accused of violating new workplace disaster law

Labor ministry officials raided the headquarters of Sampyo Industry in central Seoul on Friday in connection with a recent industrial accident in a quarry that left three workers dead, officials said. The raid came after the ministry booked Sampyo, a manufacturer of construction materials such as remicon, on Wednesday as the first firm accused of violating a newly enacted workplace disaster law aimed at better protecting workers from industrial accidents. Under the law, owners and CEOs of compan

IndustryFeb. 11, 2022

Samsung offers technological solutions to Hollywood Park

Samsung Electronics Co. said Friday it has joined the Hollywood Park Technology Alliance that provides cutting-edge solutions for the park's technological infrastructure and implementation. Hollywood Park, home to SoFi Stadium, is being developed into a massive retail and entertainment district. Located in Inglewood, California, it used to house a horse racing and training facility. The alliance of a technology-oriented think tank was launched earlier this month to help develop innovative techno

IndustryFeb. 11, 2022

Seoul stocks open steeply lower on estimate-beating US inflation data

South Korean stocks opened steeply lower Friday due to the stronger-than-expected US inflation data. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) fell 27.95 points, or 1.01 percent, to trade at 2,743.98 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. The Kospi dropped as the US consumer price index for January was up 7.5 percent, higher than the market consensus. Overnight, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite decreased 2.1 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.47 percent. Tech st

MarketFeb. 11, 2022

Kakao 2021 net profit jumps tenfold on robust platform, e-commerce

Kakao Corp., the operator of South Korea's top mobile messenger KakaoTalk, said Friday that its net profit for 2021 surged nearly tenfold on-year on the back of robust growth of its e-commerce services based on its messenger platform amid the pandemic. Net profit reached 1.64 trillion won ($1.4 billion) last year on a consolidated basis, sharply up from 167.1 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. Sales jumped by 47.6 percent on-year to reach an all-time high of 6

IndustryFeb. 11, 2022

Exports fall 12.6% in first 10 days of Feb.

South Korea's exports fell 12.6 percent on-year in the first 10 days of February due to fewer working days over the Lunar New Year holiday, customs data showed Friday. The country's outbound shipments stood at $15.7 billion in the Feb. 1-10 period, compared with $17.97 billion the previous year, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. The decline came as an extended Lunar New Year holiday reduced the number of working days during the cited period by two days compared with last ye

EconomyFeb. 11, 2022

S. Korean economy faces heightened external economic risks: finance minister

The South Korean economy faces heightened external economic risks amid soaring energy costs, global inflation risks, and geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine, Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said Friday. Hong made the remark in a meeting with the central bank chief and the top financial regulators to discuss policy coordination, market volatility and financial imbalances, and ways to stabilize consumer inflation. The minister said the Korean economy has extended its recovery momentum, b

EconomyFeb. 11, 2022

M&As slow in Korea due to tight regulations: FKI

The number of mergers and acquisitions by Korean companies that took place over the past 10 years was less than half of the average number of M&A cases in the US, UK, France, Germany and Japan in the same period. A total of 1,063 M&A cases by Korean companies took place from January 2012 through January this year, which is about 41 percent of the five countries’ average figure of 2,598 cases, according to the Federation of Korean Industries. The US topped the list with 3,350 case

IndustryFeb. 10, 2022

Finance Minister warns against cartels in food prices

SEJONG -- The Finance Ministry will look into food prices in the market later this month to uncover whether there were irregular hikes in price tags via cartels, the nation’s top policymaker said Thursday. The action comes amid continuous growth, over 3 percent on-year, in consumer prices for several months. Sharp price increases in agricultural and livestock products, alongside rising fuel prices, are putting a heavier burden on households. In a meeting for economic policies in Seoul, D

EconomyFeb. 10, 2022

Korean Air, Airbus, Air Liquide, Incheon Airport join hands for carbon-neutral aviation

Key stakeholders in the nation’s aviation industry -– Korean Air, Airbus, Air Liquide and Incheon International Airport Corp. -– have joined hands to prepare for a roadmap for carbon-neutral aviation. The four parties on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding, under which they agreed to speed up plans to introduce hydrogen fuel and build related infrastructure at airports. The event was attended by Korean Air’s Executive Vice President and Chief Safety & Op

MobilityFeb. 10, 2022

US solar tariff: Boon for South Korea, blow for China

South Korean solar companies may face a bright future this year as the US recently extended a tariff for four more years to keep cheap Chinese products in check. According to industry sources Friday, the US last week decided to impose a 15 percent tax on imported solar cells and panels for another four years as part of an apparent effort to block the inflow of Chinese-made products. The US first introduced the tariff to safeguard its domestic solar industry from China, which manufactures rou

IndustryFeb. 10, 2022

Smilegate launches CrossfireX for next-generation consoles

Smilegate has launched first-person shooting game CrossfireX for next-generation consoles, the company said Thursday. Smilegate said the launch signals the beginning of the company’s plan to target the global console market and solidify its position as South Korea’s representative powerhouse for intellectual property. CrossfireX became available on Xbox One as well as Xbox Series S and X as of 9 a.m. Korea time on Thursday. The video game is provided in nine languages for the tex

IndustryFeb. 10, 2022

Meet Omnipod, LG's self-driving concept car

LG’s future mobility concept car the LG Omnipod on Thursday made its offline debut at a technology conference organized by Kakao Mobility in Seoul. LG Omnipod, which was first presented in a video at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month, is a concept model of futuristic vehicles that can reconstruct the passengers’ space for various purposes. With the modular in-vehicle appliances and adaptive interior, LG Omnipod can be an office or personal space where users can

IndustryFeb. 10, 2022

KB chairman calls for public-private cooperation to make ESG headway

The chief of South Korea’s KB Financial Group said Thursday that the adoption of environmental, social and governance values is gaining traction, and asked for cooperation between the Korean public and the private sector to make headway in the global race. “ESG values are growing around the world with irreversible speed,” KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo said in a special luncheon talk hosted by the National Assembly. “The manufacturing sector accounts for a

MarketFeb. 10, 2022

Banks' household loans down for 2nd month in Jan. amid rate hikes, tighter rules

Loans extended by banks to households declined for the second straight month in January due to a hike in lending rates and tightened rules, central bank data showed Thursday. Outstanding bank loans to households came to 1,060.2 trillion won ($887.6 billion) as of the end of January, down 400 billion won from the previous month, according to the data from the Bank of Korean (BOK). This marked the second straight month that the banks' household loans have declined following a 200 billion won fall

EconomyFeb. 10, 2022

Q4 service output in all 16 provinces, cities rises for 3rd straight quarter

Service output rose in all 16 provinces and major cities for the third straight quarter in the fourth quarter of last year amid the vaccine rollout and the economic recovery, data showed Thursday. Service output grew 5.4 percent in the October-December period from a year earlier, accelerating from a 3.9 percent on-year gain in the third quarter, according to the data from Statistics Korea. It marked the third consecutive quarter of gains since the second quarter of 2021, when service output incr

EconomyFeb. 10, 2022

Foreigners continue net stock purchases in S. Korea for 3rd month in January

Foreign investors continued to purchase more shares than they sold in South Korea's stock markets for the third straight month in January, central bank data showed Thursday. Foreigners picked up a net $1.81 billion worth of local stocks last month, according to the data provided by the Bank of Korea. The amount, however, was halved from their net purchases in December of $3.69 billion, the data showed. Foreigners' net stock purchases here came despite the increased risk-averse tendency amid expe

EconomyFeb. 10, 2022

Built-in stylus for S22 Ultra signals end of Note era

The release of Samsung Electronics‘ Galaxy S22 Ultra showed that its Note era might have just ended, with the S series phones inheriting features that had defined the Note series. Since August 2020, the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer has yet to announce a new Note lineup, with Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra being the last to be released in the decade-long history of the Note series. The virtual Unpacked event held on Thursday (Seoul time) showed that the S22 Ultra -- the highe

TechnologyFeb. 10, 2022

Bond issuance in S. Korea jumps in Jan.

Bond issuance in South Korea rose sharply in January from the previous month in the wake of rising interest rates, industry data showed Thursday. The value of bonds sold in Asia's fourth-largest economy stood at 66.6 trillion won ($55.7 billion) last month, up 21.6 trillion won from a month earlier, according to the data from the Korea Financial Investment Association. Sales of government bonds jumped by 10.8 trillion won, and corporate bond sales expanded by 8.8 trillion won. The issuance of fi

EconomyFeb. 10, 2022