E-mart re-targets China via Alibaba shopping mall

E-mart, South Korea's biggest discount chain, said Tuesday it is launching sales at an Alibaba-powered online shopping mall, its latest effort to revive retail footing in the world's second-largest economy after previous expansion attempts flopped.Starting mid-March, E-mart will sell some 100 food and electronic products, such as soybean paste and rice cookers, at Tmall Global, an online shopping mall operated by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, the retailer said in a press release.E-mart would

Feb. 10, 2015

Samsung, Microsoft end patent dispute

Samsung Electronics and Microsoft Corp. said Tuesday they have decided to end their yearslong patent fee dispute but declined to provide details on the conditions of the agreement.  "Samsung and Microsoft are pleased to announce that they have ended their contract dispute in U.S. court, as well as the International Chamber of Commerce arbitration. Terms of the agreement are confidential," the two companies said in a joint statement via their official blogs."Due to the agreement between the two c

Feb. 10, 2015

Dessert cafe chain Sulbing expands into China

Dessert cafe franchise Sulbing said Monday it plans to open 150 branches in the world's second-largest economy by 2017, joining in a legion of South Korean food producers and confectioneries that have expanded abroad to secure new growth engines.Sulbing has signed a deal with China's Shanghai Yabin Food Stuff Trade Co. to open two branches in Shanghai by April and have 150 branches across the country by 2017, the company said in a press release. The move marks the company's first overseas expans

Feb. 9, 2015

Chung family's stake sale in Hyundai Glovis 'credit positive': Moody's

The recent stake sale by Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo and his son in Hyundai Glovis Co. is "credit positive" as it reduces the risks from upcoming toughened government penalties on intra-group transactions, a main revenue source for the logistics unit, a global credit appraiser said Monday.On Friday, Hyundai Motor Group said that its chairman and his son, Eui-sun, sold about 5 million shares in Hyundai Glovis for an estimated 1.1 trillion won ($1 billion). The sale brought down th

Feb. 9, 2015

SK hynix pushes next-generation mobile chip

South Korea's chip giant SK hynix Inc. said Monday it has started supplying its up-to-date memory chip for LG Electronics Inc.'s new flagship smartphone lineup, in its latest push to grab a bigger market share with the new mobile component as it vies against home rival Samsung Electronics Co. The low-power double data rate 4, an 8-gigabit dynamic random access memory mainly produced for mobile phones and digital cameras, has been installed in LG's G Flex 2, the curved-style handset that hit loca

Feb. 9, 2015

Hyundai E&C inks $126 mln order from Saudi Arabia

Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co., South Korea's No. 2 builder, said Monday it has won a $126 million project to lay power transmission lines in Saudi Arabia. Hyundai E&C will build 249 kilometers of a 380-kilovolt transmission line throughout the Saudi capital of Riyadh, the South Korean builder said. The deal was struck with the Saudi Electricity Company."The latest project comes as the company received recognition for excellent engineering skills and overall performance seen in other sim

Feb. 9, 2015

SK hynix narrows gap with Samsung in NAND flash sector

South Korea's No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix Inc. saw its share of the NAND flash market rise in the fourth quarter of 2014 from three months earlier, narrowing its gap with industry leader Samsung Electronics Co., data showed Sunday.SK hynix saw its market share reach 11.4 percent in the October-December period, up 1.1 percentage points from the 10.3 percent posted a quarter earlier, the data by market tracker TrendForce showed. In contrast, Samsung saw its shares fall 1.8 percentage points over the

Feb. 8, 2015

Samsung's hospitalized head No. 1 dividend earner in 2014

Lee Kun-hee, the de-facto head of South Korea's top family-controlled conglomerate Samsung Group, earned the most amount of dividends among local businessmen last year, data showed Sunday, helped by the government's pressure on listed firms to expand returns to shareholders.Lee, who has been hospitalized since May after suffering a heart attack, earned 178.8 billion won ($164 million) in 2014, up 63 percent from a year earlier, the data by market researcher Chaebul.com showed.The jump came as th

Feb. 8, 2015

Samsung No. 3 reputable firm in U.S.: report

South Korea's Samsung Group was named as the third-most reputable firm in the United States, a report showed Sunday, on the back of its strong products and services appealing to American consumers.Being the only foreign company to be included in the top-10 list, only two firms, grocery-chain operator Wegmans Food Markets Inc. and e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc., outperformed Samsung in terms of corporate reputation, the report by U.S.-based market researcher Harris Poll showed.Apple Inc., which

Feb. 8, 2015

Samsung Electronics' portion in group affiliates falls in 2014

The profit portion of South Korea's tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. among its listed group affiliates declined last year from a year earlier as the smartphone maker reported the weakest earnings in three years, data showed Thursday.   The tech firm -- the flagship unit of the country's top conglomerate, Samsung Group -- posted 25 trillion won ($22.9 billion) in operating profit for the January-December period of 2014, accounting for 80.9 percent of the combined operating income from 18 listed

Feb. 5, 2015

LG Electronics Q4 net loss widens

LG Electronics Inc., South Korea's leading home appliance and smartphone maker, said Thursday its net loss widened by more than threefold in the fourth quarter of 2014 from a year earlier as it suspended production of plasma display panel (PDP) TVs due to lack of demand.Net loss came to 205.7 billion won (US$189.9 million) in the October-December period, compared with a loss of 63.5 billion won the previous year, the company said in a regulatory filing. The figure was in line with the market con

Jan. 29, 2015

SK Telecom Q4 net jumps on growing LTE subscribers and new businesses

SK Telecom Co., the country's top mobile operator, said Thursday its fourth-quarter earnings soared on an increased number of subscribers to its faster mobile Internet connection and a rise in sales from its business solution service.Net profit came to 503.3 billion won (US$465 million) in the October-December period, up 71.4 percent from the 293.6 billion won tallied a year earlier, SK Telecom said in a regulatory filing. The figure, however, marks a 5.2 percent drop from the previous quarter.R

Jan. 29, 2015

Samsung Electronics gears up to keep mobile grip after weakest profit in 3 years

Samsung Electronics Co. set out to reclaim its edge in the handset business that on Thursday revealed its weakest annual earnings in three years for the world's top smartphone maker, as competition is expected to get fiercer with global rivals in both the high- and low-end markets.The tech giant booked a net profit of 23.4 trillion won ($21.6 billion) in 2014, down 23.2 percent from 30.5 trillion won the previous year, the company said in a regulatory filing.The operating profit fell 32 percent

Jan. 29, 2015

Naver's net more than doubles in Q4

Naver Corp., South Korea's top Internet portal operator, on Thursday released weaker than expected fourth-quarter earnings, sending its stock price to a one-week low.Net income came to 134.5 billion won (US$124.2 million) in the October-December period, more than doubling from 54.1 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. But the fourth-quarter reading was well below the median estimate of 163.2 billion won suggested by South Korea's nine brokerage houses, according t

Jan. 29, 2015

Big firms expected to cut recruitment slightly in 2015

Leading South Korean companies are likely to hire fewer new employees in 2015 than last year as there is no clear sign of an economic recovery, a poll showed Tuesday.The survey by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), which canvassed the country's top 500 companies by sales, found 180 of them plan to hire 22,844 new workers in 2015, down 2.3 percent from 23,385 last year. Of those polled, 305 responded.Among the respondents, 125 said they have not yet come up with a hiring plan as t

Jan. 27, 2015

Samsung Electronics likely to expand dividend payout

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. is expected to unveil a near 40-percent jump in cash dividends this week, industry sources said Sunday, following such decisions by Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp.Samsung had paid out a total of 2.16 trillion won ($1.99 billion) in dividends to its shareholders for 2013, or 14,300 won per share, according to the sources.They said that the company will likely give a 40 percent increase in cash dividends for 2014, citing Samsung's earlier anno

Jan. 25, 2015

Daewoo Shipbuilding wins $800 mln worth of orders for LNG carriers

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., the world's second-biggest shipyard, has signed deals worth a combined $800 million to build four liquefied natural gas carriers, the shipbuilder said Thursday.Under the deals signed Wednesday with Korea Line Corp. and Hyundai LNG Shipping Co., the shipbuilder will deliver the LNG carriers by May 2017, the company said in an e-mailed statement. The latest orders are the first for Daewoo Shipbuilding in 2015.The state-run Korea Gas Corp. had placed or

Jan. 22, 2015

KT&G's net jumps 45.5 pct in 2014 on strong sales

KT&G Corp., South Korea's state-run tobacco producer, said Thursday its net profit jumped 45.5 percent in 2014 from a year earlier, driven by an increase in domesticsales ahead of a sharp price hike.Net income came to 813.8 billion won ($751.9 million) last year, compared with 559.3 billion won in 2013, the company said in a regulatory filing. Operating profit went up 15.6 percent on-year to 1.17 trillion won last year, and sales gained 7.6 percent to 4.11 trillion won, it said.The numbers refle

Jan. 22, 2015

LG's new curved smartphone to hit shelves this month

South Korea's No. 2 tech giant, LG Electronics Inc., said Thursday that it will roll out its latest version of its curved-smartphone lineup on its home turf later this month and gradually expand its sales to overseas markets.The G Flex 2, with a Full HD 5.5-inch display, will become LG's second smartphone that boasts a display curving inward from top to bottom and slightly from right to left but will be slightly smaller than its 6-inch predecessor, the company said.The latest model was showcased

Jan. 22, 2015