Homeplus fined for giving insurers customer info

The antitrust watchdog said Monday it has fined retail giant Homeplus and its affiliate Homeplus Tesco for providing local insurers with the personal information of applicants for giveaway events.  The 435 million won ($404,500) fine was slapped on the retailers after they collected information on customers between August 2011 and June 2014, the Fair Trade Commission said.  Homeplus, which has more than 21,000 employees, was ordered to pay 325 million won, while 110 million won in fines was levi

April 27, 2015

Dongkuk Steel to sell headquarters for 420 bln won

Dongkuk Steel Mill Co., South Korea's third-largest steel maker, said Friday it plans to sell its headquarters building in downtown Seoul to a local insurer as part of its efforts to bolster its financial status.Dongkuk's board of directors approved the deal worth 420 billion won ($389 million) to sell the building to Samsung Life Insurance Co., an insurance unit of the country's top conglomerate, Samsung Group, it said.The sale of the 28-story building in downtown Seoul, one of the steelmaker's

April 24, 2015

Hyundai Motor's Q1 net drops 2.2 pct on strong won

Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's largest automaker, said Thursday its first-quarter net profit dropped 2.2 percent from a year earlier, affected by the strong local currency that hurts its sales in emerging markets.Net profit came to 1.98 trillion won ($1.83 billion) during the January-March period, compared with 2.03 trillion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.The first-quarter operating profit also dropped 18.1 percent on-year to 1.59 trillion won over the cited period

April 23, 2015

SK hynix net soars 61.5 pct in Q1

South Korea's No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix Inc. said Thursday its net profit shot up 61.5 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier on robust sales of server and mobile dynamic random access memory (DRAM) products.Net profit came to 1.29 trillion won ($1.2 billion) in the January-March period, compared with 802.5 billion won a year earlier, the company said in its regulatory filing.Revenue gained 28.7 percent on-year to 4.81 trillion won in the first quarter, and operating profit also jumped

April 23, 2015

Two SK firms to merge, cementing chairman's grip

SK C&C Co., an IT service unit of South Korea's No. 3 conglomerate SK Group, said Monday it will merge with SK Holdings Co. through a stock swap deal, a move seen as part of groupwide efforts to solidify its chairman's grip on the group.The deal is the latest in a series of moves by the country's conglomerates to revamp their ownership structure, and is expected to help the group's chairman Chey Tae-won cement his reign over the chaebol with a business portfolio ranging from telecom to energy.Th

April 20, 2015

Kia's Carnival receives highest safety rating in U.S.

Kia Motors Corp.'s all-new Carnival minivan has received the highest safety rating for collision tests conducted by a U.S. highway safety agency, the company said Thursday.The Carnival minivan, also known as the Sedona in the U.S., has received the highest rating of five stars from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in overall safety tests, according to the company. It received five stars in frontal and side crash tests, while getting five stars in a turnover accident test.The NH

April 16, 2015

Hyundai, Kia post record car sales in Europe in March

Hyundai Motor Co. and its smaller affiliate Kia Motors Corp. said Thursday that they posted record monthly sales in Europe last month on growing demand for their strategic car models targeting local customers.Hyundai Motor said that its Europe sales in March came to 48,215 units, up 11.9 percent from the previous year when it sold 43,076 cars. This marked the largest monthly sales following 48,001 units recorded in March 2012.Kia Motors also saw its Europe sales expand 9.9 percent on-year to 44,

April 16, 2015

Lotte Group drops bid to buy Italian duty free firm

South Korean retail conglomerate Lotte, which operates retail channels including duty-free shops, said Wednesday that it has withdrawn its bid to buy an Italian duty-free company."Lotte Group has considered acquiring Italian World Duty Free from many different angles, but the WDF has notified us to discontinue the process with Lotte Group, due to simultaneous talks with another company," Lotte Shopping Co., the group's key retail affiliate, said in a filing. "Therefore, Lotte Group decided to st

April 15, 2015

Samsung SDS aims to almost triple sales by 2020

Samsung SDS Co., an information technology solution arm of South Korea's top conglomerate, Samsung Group, said Wednesday it is aiming to almost triple its annual sales to 20 trillion won ($18.2 billion) by 2020 by expanding its mainstay IT-outsourcing business.Last year, Samsung SDS, established in 1985, raked in 7.8 trillion won in sales. "Samsung has been dealing well with paradigm changes in industries, and thus kept its lead in many sectors," said Jun Dong-soo, who heads Samsung SDS. "We ros

April 15, 2015

LG's new budget handset gives glimpse of G4

LG Electronics Inc., South Korea's No. 2 tech firm, said Wednesday it will release a low-end smartphone that boasts a slightly curved screen, giving an early peek of the flagship G4 smartphone set to hit shelves later this month.Although not as curved as the G Flex 2 released earlier this year, which has a curvature of 650-750R, the LG Volt will come with a 4.7-inch HD in-plane switching display with a curvature of 3,000R. A lower number indicates that the screen is bent more sharply.While sales

April 15, 2015

Hyundai Motor denies report on plant construction in Mexico

Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's top automaker, denied a media report Wednesday that it is seeking to build a factory in Mexico, calling it "groundless."Bloomberg earlier reported that Hyundai Motor is pushing to build a plant in Mexico, citing an interview with a high-ranking official of the local unit of the automaker. He was quoted as saying that Hyundai's car production in the country will likely start in a few years. "That is his personal opinion, and the decision to build a plant is totall

April 15, 2015

Hyundai, Kia see domestic sales of full-size sedans plunge

Hyundai Motor Co. and its smaller affiliate Kia Motors Corp. saw domestic sales of their full-size sedans drop sharply in the face of intensifying competition from foreign brands, industry data showed Tuesday.According to the data, Hyundai Motor, the country's largest carmaker, sold 19,919 units of the Grandeur during the first quarter of this year, down 15.7 percent from a year earlier. The Grandeur was one of the best-selling cars, with over 93,000 units of the model sold last year. The sales

April 14, 2015

Sales of Samsung's Galaxy S6 Edge beat expectations

Sales of Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy S6 Edge, a curved sister of the new flagship Galaxy S6 smartphone, have been much higher than expected, industry sources said Tuesday, with its supply unlikely to meet surging demand for the time being.Samsung rolled out the latest smartphone models in 20 countries on Friday, hoping they will help revitalize its ailing mobile business and take on Apple Inc.'s iPhone lineup.According to the sources, sales of the Galaxy S6 Edge currently make up about 50 p

April 14, 2015

Naver moves to defend users from investigation warrants

South Korea's top portal operator Naver Corp. said Monday it will seek to add more transparency to its management of privacy by having exclusive lawyers review and possibly reject warrants, amid rising concerns over the government's censorship online."Starting in April, Naver will adopt a new system in which lawyers review warrants issued by state investigators, to make sure that they do not violate the rights of unrelated users," the company said, adding it will not respond to requests that may

April 13, 2015

Lotte founder, chairman to move to new skyscraper amid safety woes

Lotte Group said Sunday it plans to relocate the offices of its founder and chairman to a 123-story skyscraper under construction in southeastern Seoul, in an apparent bid to ease the public's concerns over the building's safety.  Under the plan, group founder Shin Kyuk-ho, and his son Dong-bin, the group chairman, will move their offices to the skyscraper next year, along with 200 other employees. Their offices are currently located in central Seoul.  "Lotte World Tower will become the pride of

April 12, 2015

S. Korean consortium clinches $4.8 bln in deals with Turkmenistan

Hyundai Engineering Co. and LG International Co. said Thursday that they have "in effect" clinched a combined $4.8 billion worth of deals to improve and build plants in Turkmenistan.  The consortium led by the two will sign a $940 million contract with Turkmenistan's state-run oil company on Monday to modernize refinery plants there, they said.  The deal is designed to construct facilities that remove sulfur from gasoline and diesel produced by plants located 500 kilometers northwest of its capi

April 9, 2015

LG rolls out new premium TVs in U.S.

LG Electronics Inc., South Korea's leading home appliance maker, said Thursday it has rolled out its latest premium TV models in the United States, as part of efforts to grab a bigger share in the North America region.   LG unveiled the Ultra OLED TV and Super Ultra HD TV before the press at a launch event held in New York, the company said in a statement.   The Ultra OLED TV and Super Ultra HD TV are the latest 2015 models that were showcased in Seoul in late February. The debut of these two mo

April 9, 2015

Hyundai Steel merges with Hyundai Hysco

Hyundai Steel Co., South Korea's No. 2 steelmaker, said Wednesday that its board approved a deal to take over Hyundai Hysco Co., a move expected to increase synergy between the two companies.The takeover deal was approved at a board meeting held earlier in the day, Hyundai Steel said in a regulatory filing.Under the deal that needs to be endorsed in a shareholder meeting, Hyundai Steel will issue new shares and change them with those of Hyundai Hysco at a ratio of 1 to 0.8577. Hyundai Steel plan

April 8, 2015

Samsung expands R&D spending: data

South Korea's top conglomerate Samsung Group has been increasing expenditures in research and development projects in its technology affiliates, data showed Wednesday, in an apparent bid to foster new growth engines amid sluggish performances.  Samsung Electronics Co., Samsung's mainstay unit, allocated 15.3 trillion won (US$14 billion) for R&D last year, which accounted for 7.4 percent of its revenue, industry data showed. The figure marks a 1.5 percentage point rise from 5.9 percent posted two

April 8, 2015

Samsung earnings show signs of recovery

Samsung Electronics Co. on Tuesday posted a market-beating quarterly profit on growing demand for memory chips and displays, signaling the tech giant may be pulling out of an earnings slump.  In a regulatory filing, Samsung said its operating profit rose 11.5 percent on-quarter to 5.9 trillion won ($5.44 billion) in the January-March period, though it represented a 30.5 percent drop from a year earlier.  The first-quarter operating profit was far above the median market forecast of 5.47 trillion

April 7, 2015