Sejung heiress promoted to COO

[THE INVESTOR] Sejung Group chairman Park Soon-ho’s daughter Park I-ra, 38, has been promoted to chief operating officer and executive vice president at her father’s fashion empire.According to the group on July 1, the junior Park will also serve as head of the group’s apparel distributor Sejung & Future.Established in 1974, Sejung has a stronghold in women’s apparel and is one of the leading second-tier clothing firms in the country.Sejung Group COO Park I-raPark, the chairman’s third daughter,

July 1, 2016

Lotte’s key finance man questioned in growing probe

Lotte Insurance chief executive Kim Hyun-soo.[THE INVESTOR] Lotte Insurance chief executive Kim Hyun-soo has been summoned for questioning in the prosecution’s probe into Lotte Group. He has been summoned as a witness. Kim served in accounting rolls in Lotte Department Store from 1987 to 2014. From 2007, he was in charge of the company’s finances.   In serving as the company’s finance chief, Kim is said to have managed personal funds of Lotte Group founder Shin Kyuk-ho, and current chairman Shin

June 23, 2016

Richest under 40: Koo Gwang-mo

[BORN TO BE RICH] Among South Korea's richest aged 40 years or younger, LG chairman’s the adopted son Koo Gwang-mo, 38, of LG Group is the wealthiest. His net worth is estimated at 751.8 billion won (US$650.5 million).LG Corp. vice president Koo Gwang-mo.Koo is the great grandson of LG’s founder, the late Koo In-hoe. He was born to Heesung Group chairman Koo Bong-neung, but was adopted by his uncle Koo Bon-moo, chairman of LG. Gwang-mo is currently a vice president of LG Corp. He was promoted to

June 22, 2016

Samsung to invest $1.2 billion in U.S. IoT business

Samsung Electronics Co., South Korea's No. 1 tech firm, announced Tuesday that it will pour $1.2 billion by 2020 into the Internet of Things business in the United States, as part of its global initiative to create a new IoT ecosystem, a hot issue in the ICT world.Samsung also launched an advisory group in partnership with Intel Corp. to affect U.S. policy on IoT."I am excited to show how we are moving IoT to the center of our strategy and am delighted to announce that Samsung is planning to spe

June 22, 2016

Samsung supports Korean War veterans' offspring

The Samsung Group, South Korea's largest conglomerate, has gone global not only with its smartphones and other products but also with steady financial support for those in need abroad.Major beneficiaries include Korean War veterans and their offspring.Samsung has provided them with a total of around US$8.5 million in various aid programs since the early 1990s, according to group officials on Monday.The campaign is based on the belief that the sacrifice of the war veterans is the reason for the r

June 20, 2016

Conglomerates selling stakes in money-making affiliates to raise funds

[THE INVESTOR] Owners of the nation’s top conglomerates are increasingly selling their stakes in various money-making affiliates to raise funds needed for participating in capital increases of other key affiliates.On June 8, Hanjin Group chairman Cho Yang-ho sold a 6.87 percent stake in one of Hanjin’s real estate brokering affiliates for 25.1 billion won (US$21.3 million), according to a regulatory filing on June 16. The brokering affiliate had posted 41.3 billion won in sales and 14 billion wo

June 17, 2016

Kakao to split its business into two arms

[THE INVESTOR] Mobile messenger operator Kakao is reportedly planning to split its services business into two divisions -- social network and portal.The social network division will be in charge of running its flagship social networking services including KakaoTalk and KakaoStory while the portal business will be operating news platform Daum News and content platform KakaoTalk Channel among others.KakaoTalk ChannelLim Sung-young, director of the firm’s media content team, will head the portal bu

June 17, 2016

Divorce battle reveals unknown aspects of Samsung family

[THE INVESTOR] Packed with twists and turns, a divorce suit between former Samsung Electro-Mechanics executive Lim Woo-jae and his wife and Hotel Shilla president Lee Boo-jin unveiled unknown stories behind the family owners of Samsung Group, the largest conglomerate in Korea.Lim, first son-in-law of Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee, said in an interview with Korean news publication Hankyoreh on June 16 that he had twice attempted suicide during the 17 years of his marriage due to pressure fro

June 17, 2016

Samsung buys U.S. cloud services firm

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. said Thursday it has acquired U.S. cloud service company Joyent Inc. to cope with rising demand for cloud platform services.Joyent, a San Francisco-based cloud provider, has come under Samsung's wing as of Wednesday (U.S. time), the South Korean tech firm said in a statement. Samsung's acquisition of the U.S. startup firm signals its interest in cloud computing that has become fundamental in providing users with reliable services on their mobile an

June 16, 2016

Kuraray to add PVB film production facility to Ulsan plant

Japanese chemical company Kuraray held a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday to build a production facility for polyvinyl butyral film at a plant of its South Korean unit in the southeastern city of Ulsan.PVB is a glass interlayer used in creating safety glass in the automotive and architectural industries. The company plans to complete the construction of the PVB production facility by the end of next year with an investment of $50 million.Kuraray's expansion of the local plant is part of its e

June 16, 2016

Top 10 chaebol owners rake in hefty dividends

[THE INVESTOR] The nation’s top 10 chaebol owners raked in hefty dividends from affiliates over the past five years, Chaebul.com, a local website that tracks chaebol, revealed on June 15. The total amounts of dividends reached almost 1.5 trillion won ($1.3 billion) between 2011 and 2015.Chaebul.com said their actual dividends could be a lot more considering the figures are based on their listed companies only. #1 Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Kun-hee with 681.1 billion won in dividends The Sa

June 15, 2016

Cheil Worldwide to jack up investment, hiring: sources

Cheil Worldwide Inc., the advertising unit of the Samsung Group, plans to raise its investment and hiring this year after its negotiations to sell a controlling stake to a French advertising giant fell apart, industry sources said Wednesday.The company, part of South Korea's largest family-controlled conglomerate, plans to push forward with aggressive mergers and acquisitions and set a goal to expand its sales by more than 10 percent in 2016, they said.The country's No. 1 advertising company log

June 15, 2016

U.S. biz community to help Korean startups go global

Major U.S. firms operating here on Tuesday joined the South Korean government's efforts to help local startups globalize.Members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea held a ceremony in Seoul to launch the "Global Leading Companies Mentoring Startups" campaign in partnership with the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.Nineteen American companies participated in the event, including Facebook, IBM, Microsoft and Boeing.They agreed to provide 14 selected South Korean startups with

June 14, 2016

Kumho Asiana chief meets with daughter of former Chinese premier

Kumho Asiana Group Chairman Park Sam-koo met with a high-profile Chinese woman in charge of promoting friendship with foreign countries and they discussed ways to boost exchanges between the two sides, a Kumho Asiana official said Thursday.The meeting between Park and Li Xiaolin, president of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, took place in eastern Seoul, the official said, without elaborating. (Kumho Asiana Group)Li, the daughter of former Chinese Premier Li

June 9, 2016

Asiana Airlines, Kumho Industrial sell off landmark building in Vietnam

Asiana Airlines Inc., South Korea's No. 2 flag carrier, said Thursday it has sold a 50 percent stake in Kumho Asiana Plaza, a Vietnamese landmark building, to Saigon Boulevard Holdings Pte. Ltd as part of its efforts to improve its financial health.The $107.5 million deal was completed between the carrier and the affiliate of Singaporean property developer Mapletree Investments Pte earlier in the day, an official of Asiana Airlines said.Kumho Asiana Plaza built by Kumho Industrial Co., the const

June 9, 2016

Hyundai Glovis chief rated as top local CEO

The president of Hyundai Glovis Co., a logistics unit of South Korean auto giant Hyundai Motor Group, has been rated as the best performer among CEOs of the country's top 500 companies, data showed Thursday.According to the data by market researcher CEO Score, Kim Kyung-bae received 64.5 points out of a possible 100 in an assessment of CEOs' management performances in 2015. The Hyundai Glovis CEO placed second last year.Cho Hwan-eik, president of state-run Korean Electric Power Corp., and Park S

June 9, 2016

Samsung SDS mulls split of logistics biz

Samsung SDS Co., a key IT unit of the Samsung Group, said Tuesday that it is considering splitting its logistics business in a bid to foster competitiveness."The company is reviewing a plan to split off the Samsung SDS logistics division to strengthen competitiveness in global logistics and focus on management capacity," the company stated in a regulatory filing.Samsung SDS said it will "seek further ways to strengthen sectors other than logistics amid rapid market changes (in the industry) such

June 7, 2016

Secucen to build e-signature platform for hospitals

On May 25, Secucen (CEO Kim Je-ho), a fintech security company, announced that it is currently conducting a project with large domestic hospitals to build an electronic signature platform. This e-signature solution will replace handwritten signatures with biometric information for the purpose of executing operation permissions, among others. The purpose of the platform is to prevent potential factors that could lead to medical disputes among medical institutions, patients, and patients’ families

June 2, 2016

Family-controlled firms show higher profitability: report

Family-run companies were found to generate higher profitability compared to rivals, a report said on Thursday, claiming that involvement by "owner" families leads to good business results.According to the report compiled by the Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI), 4,683 family-controlled firms here posted a return on asset (ROA) ratio of 3.7 percent between 2000 and 2014.A family-controlled firm in the report is defined as family members having a stake of 20 percent or more, or two or more

March 31, 2016

Former KORAIL chief summoned over corruption in urban development project

Prosecutors summoned a former chief of Korea's rail operator Thursday on suspicions of bribery in connection to a now-scrapped urban development plan in Seoul.Huh Joon-young, who led the Korea Railroad Corp. (KORAIL) from 2009 to 2011, appeared before the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office in southern Seoul. Huh Joon-young, former president of the Korea Railroad Corp. (Yonhap)The 63-year-old is accused of receiving illegal political funds from his aide, identified only by his surname Soh

March 31, 2016