[Market Eye] Will Lee Jae-yong’s return revitalize Samsung?

 Even as it reported record revenue over the last three quarters, shares in Samsung Electronics have fallen over the past year, indicating weak market confidence in the tech giant’s prospects as inflation and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threaten the general economy. Not all is well at the company, despite the strong bottom line. The memory chip business is suffering from weak pricing, and its chip foundry investments are lagging behind rivals TSMC and Intel. Meanwhile it is s

May 8, 2022

Single-person households spend more on alcohol: report

South Korea’s single-person households proportionally spent more on alcohol than households with two or more people last year, a report showed Sunday. According to the Korea Rural Economic Institute’s report that analyzed the Statistics Korea’s data from 2021, single-person households spent 10.6 percent of their processed food spending on buying alcoholic beverages, whereas households with two or more people allocated 7.3 percent. The report showed that younger people living

May 8, 2022

SK Telecom, Deutsche Telekom forge metaverse alliance

South Korea’s No. 1 mobile carrier SK Telecom said Sunday it has inked a strategic alliance with German counterpart Deutsche Telekom to bring its metaverse platform to European market. SK Telecom said in a statement the two companies will carry out a field test for metaverse operation in Europe before the end of 2022, create contents that work on the virtual world and implement a marketing for metaverse migration in Europe. SK Telecom premiered an international version of its own ifland m

May 8, 2022

Shinhan chief, UK minister discuss climate efforts in financial sector

Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byeong met with the UK Environment Minister Zac Goldsmith and British Ambassador to Korea Colin Crooks to discuss the role of the finance sector in combating climate change and biodiversity loss, the firm said Sunday. In the meeting held Friday, Goldsmith was briefed on Shinhan’s Zero-Carbon Drive, which includes the banking group’s goal to reduce carbon emissions by 46 percent in 2030 and 88 percent in 2040 in line with the landmark 2016 P

May 8, 2022

Hyundai Motor opens future mobility studio in Montana

Hyundai Motor Group said Friday its future mobility unit, called Hyundai New Horizons Studio, has opened a new research center in Bozeman, Montana.  With about 25 billion won ($20 million) being invested, the center will serve as the unit’s headquarters and oversee the development of “Ultimate Mobility Vehicles” or UMV for the South Korean auto giant’s futuristic push.  Hyundai New Horizons Studio, established in September 2020, aims to redefine transportatio

May 6, 2022

US Fed’s rate hikes pose dilemma for S. Korea

The US Federal Reserve’s biggest rate hike in 22 years poses a dilemma for South Korea’s central bank in adjusting the pace of its monetary tightening and for local businesses seeking to go public, experts said Friday. The Fed’s decision to raise its base rate by half a percentage point on Wednesday (Eastern Standard Time) that set its target federal funds rate to a range between 0.75 percent and 1 percent has presented new hurdles for the Bank of Korea, which is wary of the g

May 6, 2022

SK Shieldus withdraws IPO on jittery market sentiment

SK Shieldus, the South Korean security service subsidiary of SK Group’s ICT arm SK Square, said on Friday that it has scrapped its plans for market debut, citing dampened investor sentiment. “We have submitted a delisting notice to the Financial Supervisory Service because the recent demand forecasting, which decides initial public offering prices, showed that our corporate value may not be well received,” the company said. Stressing that market sentiment has turned sour fol

May 6, 2022

Vice finance minister pledges preemptive response to market volatility

SEJONG -- Vice Finance Minister Lee Eog-weon on Friday reiterated policymakers’ willingness to intervene promptly to stabilize the capital and currency markets.　 During a meeting to take countermeasures against the US Federal Reserve’s monetary tightening, Lee said that “there is a high possibility that Korea’s financial and foreign exchange market will react sensitively to external factors for the time being.” His remarks came after the Fed raised the US base rat

May 6, 2022

SKT, SK Square invest W50b in metaverse game maker

SK Group’s telecom carrier SK Telecom and investment unit SK Square are investing 50 billion won ($39 million) in game maker Haegin to strengthen its competitiveness in the AI and metaverse service, companies said Friday.  With each contributing 25 billion won, the two ICT subsidiaries of SK Group will step up as the third largest shareholder of Haegin.  Haegin, a games company established in 2017 by Lee Young-il, has launched four games globally such as Play Together, a Korea

May 6, 2022

Seoul city to invest W612b to beef up public medical services

The Seoul city government said Friday it will invest a total of 612 billion won ($479.7 million) over the next four years to beef up the city's public medical services, including the construction of three new city-run hospitals. The project was launched amid growing calls for an expansion of the public health system to deal with health crisis situations, such the COVID-19 pandemic, and meet the needs of the less privileged, city officials said. Under the plan, a 600-bed capacity general hospital

May 6, 2022

SK shieldus scraps IPO plans on poor market sentiment

South Korean cybersecurity service provider SK shieldus Co. withdrew its plans for an initial public offering (IPO) Friday, citing lackluster investor confidence. SK shieldus, the cybersecurity arm of South Korean telecom giant SK Telecom Co., said it had submitted a delisting notice to the Financial Supervisory Service the same day, about a month after reporting an IPO plan in late March. The decision came as the company received lackluster response from domestic and foreign institutional inv

May 6, 2022

S. Korea vows 'preemptive' steps against market volatility after Fed's rate hike

South Korea's finance ministry vowed Friday to seek preemptive measures, if needed, to tackle market volatility "in an aggressive and swift manner" following the US central bank's half-point rate hike. On Wednesday (US time), the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rates by a half-percentage point to curb the country's worst inflation in about four decades. The increase was the sharpest in 22 years. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said 50-basis point rate hikes &quo

May 6, 2022

Seoul shares open sharply lower after Fed's rate hike

South Korean stocks opened steeply lower Friday, as investors fret over an economic downturn after the US Federal Reserve raised the interest rate to tame high inflation. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 34.89 points, or 1.3 percent, to 2,642.68 in the first 15 minutes of trading. The Fed hiked the short-term rate by the widely expected 0.5 percentage point in its policy meeting Wednesday (US time). Shares in Seoul declined across the board, with market behemoth Samsung Electro

May 6, 2022

[Newsmaker] US Fed makes biggest rate increase since 2000 to fight inflation

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced its biggest rate hike since 2000, with a half percentage point increase as it works to crush soaring US inflation. With inflation at the highest rate in four decades, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell sent a message directly to the American people, expressing concern for the pain caused by rising prices, and pledging to use all available tools to bring them down. But he told reporters he remains confident the economy is strong enough to

May 5, 2022

Legoland opens after decade of delays

A Legoland theme park opened to the public on Children’s Day, Thursday, in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, 11 years after the deal was signed between the local government and Merlin Entertainments. Merlin, the world’s second-largest operator of visitor attractions behind Walt Disney, had faced opening delays several times because the joint project attracted little capital from local investors and hit a snag over what to do with ancient artifacts found on the site where the park was be

May 5, 2022

AmCham Korea chairman offers tips for expanding business in US

James Kim, chairman and CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea, shared his insight into doing business in the US at the Global Business Forum, highlighting the need to understand the two countries’ different dynamics. The forum was hosted by The Korea Herald on Wednesday in Seoul. In his special lecture, titled “Act to Win: How to Connect Korea and the US,” he said Korean companies should understand their selling points to expand business opportunities in the US, es

May 5, 2022

Lotte trademarks Lotte Biologics in new bio push

South Korea’s retail giant Lotte Group has registered the trademark of “Lotte Biologics” with the Korean Intellectual Property Office, signaling the conglomerate’s official enter the bio industry. According to the KIPO, Lotte Holdings applied for Lotte Biologics’ patent last week with business areas including customized manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals, drug processing and medical diagnostic devices for virus testing. “Registering the trademark of Lotte

May 5, 2022

Hyundai’s first all-electric Ioniq 5 marks first year of success

Hyundai Motor’s first all-electric vehicle Ioniq 5 is set to hit some 90,000 unit sales globally since its launch a year ago. According to the carmaker on Thursday, the electric midsize crossover utility vehicle sold 88,871 units – 33,212 units at home and 55,658 units abroad – as of March this year. The Ioniq 5 made its debut in April last year, becoming the first car to be running on Hyundai’s own EV platform, called the Electric-Global Modular Platform, or E-GMP.

May 5, 2022

Gimpo Airport to resume international flights in June

Gimpo International Airport in Seoul is resuming the long-stalled operation of international flights from June, starting with popular routes between South Korea and Japan. According to the Transport Ministry on Thursday, several South Korean and Japanese air carriers such as Korean Air, Asiana Airlines, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways have filed applications to resume international flights at the airport. Gimpo Airport in western Seoul, one of the nation’s main gateways along with

May 5, 2022

Korea to pour W877b into pharma industry

SEJONG -- The Korean government has decided to inject 877.7 billion won ($693 million) into the pharmaceutical industry which will be used for the development of new drugs, especially medicines and vaccines for variants of COVID-19, and fostering the nation’s bio-related manpower. The government also plans to support businesses which have been developing innovative vaccines or other medicines by raising the so-called “K-global vaccine fund” worth 500 billion won, officials sai

May 5, 2022