Louis Vuitton out, as duty-free suffers

Louis Vuitton, a brand that once symbolized the prestige that came along with overseas travel for Koreans, is exiting some duty-free stores in Korea, according to multiple officials in the industry. “Louis Vuitton announced mid this year it will pull out of all Korean duty-free stores operating in the city. It’s unclear exactly when, but we expect it will be around the end of the year to early 2022,” said one official from a local duty-free operator who requested anonymity.

ConsumerDec. 20, 2021

Banking giants set to deliver record dividends

South Korea’s four major bank holding firms are expected to hand out record-high dividends this year amid their highest net profit estimates buoyed by pandemic recovery, officials said Monday. The total dividends the four companies -- KB Financial Group, Hana Financial Group, Shinhan Financial Group and Woori Financial Group -- would pay is estimated to be 3.8 trillion won ($3.2 billion), about 26 percent of the combined net profit of 14.6 trillion won. “We were asked to refer to 2

EconomyDec. 20, 2021

Mirae Asset Securities chief named ‘person of the year’ by KRX

Mirae Asset Securities Chairman Choi Hyun-man was named person of the year by the Korea Exchange, Korea’s sole bourse operator, for his contribution to the local capital market, officials said Monday. “Chairman Choi heads a leading brokerage company that helped 21 firms go public this year, including game maker Krafton, in what was the biggest initial public offering in 2021,” the Korea Exchange said. The exchange credited its first awardee Choi for becoming the first non-fa

MarketDec. 20, 2021

Krafton invests $5m in Indian dating app 'FRND'

Krafton Inc., the South Korean gaming giant behind the global smash hit "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" (PUBG), said Monday that it has invested $5 million in the Indian dating app FRND. The investment into FRND is part of a Series A round of funding worth $6.5 million that includes other investors, such as India Quotient and Elevation Capital, the company said. A Series A round of financing is the first round of financing that a startup receives from a venture capital firm. FRND is

IndustryDec. 20, 2021

S. Korea ups 2022 economic growth outlook to 3.1%

South Korea's finance ministry on Monday revised up its 2022 growth outlook for the country's economy to 3.1 percent, saying that exports and private spending will likely gain ground despite heightened economic uncertainty. The government's latest projection is higher than the 3 percent growth forecast made in June, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The ministry's outlook is more upbeat than the 3 percent growth estimates by the Bank of Korea (BOK) and the Organization for Econ

EconomyDec. 20, 2021

Seoul stocks sink to 3-month low amid virus scare

South Korean stocks plunged nearly 2 percent Monday morning amid spreading virus concern. The Korean won steeply fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) retreated 54.73 points, or 1.81 percent, to close at 2,963 points, the lowest closing since Dec. 2. Trading volume was low at about 371 million shares worth some 8.5 trillion won ($7.1 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 785 to 117. Foreigners offloaded a net 552 billion won, and institutions

MarketDec. 20, 2021

Korea seeks economic normalization next year via tourism boosting, new tech

SEJONG -- South Korea has publicized its goals of attaining full-fledged normalization of the economy beyond the pandemic crisis in 2022, alongside taking the lead in global competition to occupy future businesses. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki highlighted these dual goals during the government’s unveiling of economic policy directions for next year at the Government Complex in Seoul on Monday. In a bid to maximize the economic normalization, the Ministry of Eco

EconomyDec. 20, 2021

LG chairman urges customer-centric innovation

LG Group chairman and Chief Executive Officer Koo Kwang-mo urged its staff and executives across the world to focus on creating a “valuable user experience” for customers in his New Year’s speech for 2022. Koo, who serves in the top post of South Korea’s fourth-largest family-owned conglomerate, stressed in the mission statement that its staff should think outside the box and explore what is beyond the quality of goods and services, provided by the group dedicated to el

IndustryDec. 20, 2021

From cryptocurrency to EVs, ‘green’ chips are all the rage

“Green” chips, or low-power semiconductors, have become bestsellers among both crypto miners and electric vehicle makers looking to increase their profitability and driving range. According to industry sources Monday, major chipmakers including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung Electronics are producing advanced, low-power chips at full throttle, as miners of cryptocurrencies desperately search for chips that consume less electricity. “Conventional chips c

IndustryDec. 20, 2021

Hanwha Q Cells’ low-carbon panels go online in France

Hanwha Q Cells said Monday that its low-carbon solar panels began generating electricity at TotalEnergies’ 55-megawatt solar farm in Gien, France. According to the solar business unit of Hanwha Group, its 126,000 solar panels will produce up to 64 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year -- enough for 71,000 people -- at Total’s solar farm that spans 107 football fields. “Over the course of 30 years, the solar farm will curb carbon emissions worth 550,000 metric tons,”

IndustryDec. 20, 2021

Kakao Brain’s AI models ‘more practical’ than Naver, says CEO

Kim Il-du, CEO of Kakao Brain, the artificial intelligence technology research and development subsidiary of Kakao, said Monday its supergiant AI models are more practical than Naver’s, amid growing competition between the two tech giants over leadership in the AI business in Korea. “Although Kakao Brain’s Korean-language AI model KoGPT contains less parameters than Naver’s, it is just the size to give fast and real-time feedback to the users,” Kim said during an o

TechnologyDec. 20, 2021

LG teases new UltraGear gaming laptop, eyes Korea release in Dec.

LG Electronics said Monday it is looking to release its newest LG UltraGear laptop for 2022 -- a high-performance model designed for gamers -- within December in Korea. The laptop features a 17.3-inch monitor with a 1080p display resolution, using an in-place switching panel of 300-hertz refresh rate, as well as DTS: X Ultra system for multidimensional sound, in order to deliver a more immersive gaming experience, according to the company. It is powered by Intel‘s 11th-generation Tiger

TechnologyDec. 20, 2021

Hyundai Heavy to present next-generation shipping mobility at CES 2022

South Korean shipbuilding giant Hyundai Heavy Industries Group said Monday that it will showcase its latest and next-generation mobility technologies at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES), making its debut at the major tech trade show. The tech fair, better known as CES, is set to run for four days from Jan. 5-8 in Las Vegas. Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. and its affiliates will offer a glimpse into the future of shipping mobility, with focus on autonomous navigation. They will also

IndustryDec. 20, 2021

Seoul stocks open lower on US stock losses

South Korean stocks opened steeply lower Monday, tracking last week's fall on Wall Street stemming from virus concerns. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) declined 29.65 points, or 0.98 percent, to 2,988.08 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Most large caps traded lower in Seoul. Top cap Samsung Electronics shed 0.9 percent, and No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix decreased 0.41 percent. Internet portal operator Naver retreated 1.95 percent, leading chemical firm LG Chem fe

MarketDec. 20, 2021

KEPCO decides to freeze electricity rate for Q1 of 2022

South Korea's state power firm Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) said Monday it will freeze the country's electricity rates in the first quarter of 2022 amid rising inflation. KEPCO said it has decided to set the adjusted unit fuel cost at zero won per kilowatt-hour for the January-March period of next year, the same as that three months earlier. Late last year, KEPCO adopted a flexible electricity rate system linked to global fuel prices in a move to improve its profitability. It previously

EconomyDec. 20, 2021

Bank holding firms' 2021 dividends expected to hit new high on bumper profits

Dividends by South Korea's four major financial holding firms are expected to hit an all-time high in 2021 as they have decided to return more of their bumper profits to shareholders, sources said Monday. The combined dividend payout of the four is likely to reach around 3.83 trillion won ($3.23 billion) this year, according to the sources and an estimate by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency. It would represent the largest-ever dividend payout by the four holding com

EconomyDec. 20, 2021

IMM takes 41% stake in GS Power for W1.1tr

Local investment house IMM Investment has acquired a 41 percent stake in GS Power, a subsidiary owned by GS Energy, an energy arm of GS Group, for 1.1 trillion won ($926 million), officials said Friday. GS Energy will maintain a 51 percent majority, after selling 3,136 shares totaling 1.1 trillion won. Last year, GS Energy bought back the 50 percent stake it sold to a local consortium of banks in 2012. A GS Energy official said the sell-off is part of broader efforts to fund ESG projects, whic

IndustryDec. 19, 2021

Market winners and losers in 2021: Fintech soars while drugmakers suffer

In 2021, South Korea’s two biggest financial technology firms, Naver and Kakao, saw their market capitalization expand on-year, while drugmakers faced a dip in market value. As of last week, Naver, the country’s largest internet portal, had seen a 36 percent jump in its market cap at 63 trillion won ($53 billion), while the market value for Kakao, which runs the country’s largest messenger app for smartphones, almost tripled at 115 trillion won. The hike mainly came from Kaka

MarketDec. 19, 2021

Korean food companies go vegan to target meat-alternative market

Plant will become the new beef on our dinner tables soon, with more Korean food companies coming up with their own versions of plant-based meat alternatives to cater to global vegan population of some 79 million and growing. CJ CheilJedang said Sunday its launching a vegan brand called PlantTable due to a growing interest in vegetarian food here in Korea and around the world. The food company said it will launch two types of vegan Bibigo Dumpling products in Singapore and Australia sometime

ConsumerDec. 19, 2021

[Newsmaker] Demand for wine, Korean beef surge in 2021, says E-mart

Customer demand for wine and Korean beef has shown rapid increase this year, as an alternative to dining outside, said the local discount chain E-mart on Sunday. The discount retailer tracked the changes in the type of products sold from 2019 to November this year. According to the store’s data, wine leaped from 10th place in 2019 to sixth in 2021, with sales jumping by 32 percent from 2019.  More Korean consumers have started venturing into higher-priced wines compared to the sta

ConsumerDec. 19, 2021