Hyundai Securities to sell stake in K Bank

[THE INVESTOR] Hyundai Securities plans to sell its stake in K Bank, one of Korea’s first Internet-only banks, the firm said on June 23. The brokerage firm is the third-largest shareholder of K Bank, to be launched by No. 2 telecom operator KT, with 10 percent shares.It will seek a board approval for the transaction at a meeting on June 28. “We gained the consent from K Bank’s other shareholders regarding the share sell-off,” a Hyundai Securities official said. “We will begin the disposal proced

June 23, 2016

Credit card spending jumps 22.3% in May

[THE INVESTOR] South Korea’s credit card spending rose more than 22 percent from a year earlier in May, data from the Credit Finance Association showed on June 23.Overall credit card purchases came to 63.2 trillion won (US$54.8 billion) last month, up 22.3 percent from the same month last year. The on-year rise marks a significant acceleration from a 7.1 percent on-year gain posted in May 2015.Such an increase was partly attributed to a surge in the amount of tax payments made with credit cards,

June 23, 2016

Korea’s top firms blocking economic recovery: study

[THE INVESTOR] Korea’s economic recovery is being delayed as local companies are fast losing vitality, a study conducted by LG Economic Research Institute showed. Korea’s equity market that is in the doldrums reflects the downtick in business activities here, Lee Han-deuk, senior researcher at the think tank said in his report published on June 20. The study notes that the compound annual growth rate of Korean firms’ market capitalization slowed to 3.2 percent between 2011 and 2015, compared to

June 22, 2016