LG Innotek chief wins tech award

LG Innotek said its chief executive Jeong Cheol-dong will receive an award from the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers on Friday for helping raise the global competitiveness of the local materials and parts industry. Jeong, known for his insight on the materials and parts market with 37 years of experience in business-to-business deals, will receive the Haedong Technology Award from the academic organization, the electronic components maker said. Having joined LG Semiconductor

Dec. 9, 2021

Jungheung to become 3rd largest builder in Korea after Daewoo E&C takeover

Construction conglomerate Jungheung Group’s acquisition of much-larger rival Daewoo Engineering & Construction on Thursday is set to make Jungheung the third-largest builder by asset in South Korea, following Samsung E&C and Hyundai E&C.  While the two firms will run management individually under terms, Jungheung Group said it will retain Daewoo E&C staff and executives and guarantee the builder‘s independence in management. The two builders’ flagship apa

Dec. 9, 2021

Beauty companies share globalization strategy at Trade Week 2021

Business leaders in the cosmetics and beauty industry shared their thoughts on the growth potential of K-beauty on Thursday, at Trade Week 2021, a four-day global conference organized by the Seoul Business Agency to offer support for small and medium-sized enterprises in Seoul.  L’Oreal’s Chief Digital Officer Lee Seon-young kicked off the seminar, explaining how digitalization is changing the company’s business strategy. “We do not think the rise in online busine

Dec. 9, 2021

Whey out of line: Seoul Milk under fire for portraying women as dairy cows in ad

Korea’s No. 1 milk producer by market share, Seoul Dairy Cooperative is under fire for objectifying women and portraying voyeurism in its latest video advertisement for its organic milk products. The 52-second video shows people, most of whom are presumably women, dressed in white drinking water from a stream and relaxing in a green meadow somewhere in Gangwon Province.  In the next scene, a man quietly approaches with a video camera from the cover of trees. He steps on a branch an

Dec. 9, 2021

S. Korea's debt level not to negatively affect credit ratings: S&P

South Korea's government debt level is not high enough to negatively affect its sovereign ratings in the near future, the global credit appraiser S&P Global Ratings said Thursday. Kim Eng Tan, senior director at S&P, said Korea's debt-to-GDP ratio is expected to reach slightly more than 40 percent by the end of next year, lower than the 50 percent estimate by the Korean government. "l just state very clearly that I don't think the Korean government ratings will be negatively affec

Dec. 9, 2021

'Squid Game' 9th most searched keyword on Google in 2021

South Korean megahit “Squid Game” ranked as the No. 9 most-searched keyword by worldwide users on Google this year, Google Korea said Thursday. No. 1 on the list of most searched terms was “Australia vs. India,” referring to cricket matches between the two countries. “India vs. England” took second, followed by “IPL,” which stands for the Indian Premier League. Among the TV shows searched on Google worldwide, the Korean drama series was the mos

Dec. 9, 2021

LG CNS joins hands with Fujitsu for optimization consulting

South Korean information technology solutions company LG CNS said Thursday it has teamed up with Japanese counterpart Fujitsu to strengthen its mathematical optimization consulting capacity to improve client services. LG CNS and Fujitsu‘s Korean unit has recently signed a memorandum of understanding to develop an optimization algorithm that runs on Fujitsu’s digital annealer computational architecture. Fujitsu‘s digital annealer is a quantum computing-inspired technology to s

Dec. 9, 2021

Kyobo, KakaoBank join hands for platform projects

Kyobo Life Insurance affiliates and KakaoBank signed a memorandum of understanding on data cooperation and financial platform projects, officials said Thursday. KakaoBank, South Korea’s biggest internet-only bank by user base, said it will work with Kyobo Book Centre, the country’s largest bookstore by sales, to develop and upgrade an alternative credit rating model. To do that, the lender plans to research and analyze nonfinancial data such as the history of book purchases by Kyob

Dec. 9, 2021

LG Energy Solution reviews $2b EV battery plant in Ontario

LG Energy Solution said Thursday it is mulling a new electric vehicle battery plant worth $2 billion in the Canadian province of Ontario. According to South Korea’s leading battery firm, it is currently in talks with Ontario officials for the new battery factory. The envisioned Ontario plant is part of LG Energy Solution’s plan to invest 5.6 trillion won ($4.76 billion) in North America by 2024 and secure an additional annual production capacity of 55 gigawatt-hours in the regi

Dec. 9, 2021

Huawei to stay committed to Korean business despite uncertainties

Despite the global supply disruption due to a chip shortage and supply bottleneck, coupled with sanctions imposed by the United States, Huawei Technologies will continue to stay committed to its South Korean partners, executives of the Chinese tech giant in Seoul said Wednesday evening. “While there are still many uncertainties on the road ahead of us, Huawei will remain open and collaborative,” Karl Song, the vice president of Huawei in charge of corporate communications, in a prer

Dec. 9, 2021

EcoProBM to build W970b EV battery material plant in Hungary

EcoProBM, an electric vehicle battery material supplier for Samsung SDI and SK On, said Thursday it will build a cathode plant in Hungary worth 970 billion won ($825 million). The Hungarian plant, which is to be EcoProBM’s first overseas investment, will churn out 108,000 tons of cathode material per year once it goes fully operational in the second half of 2025. The production output would be enough to produce batteries for 1.35 million electric vehicles, the company said. Cathodes

Dec. 9, 2021

Ex-Burberry chief designer named new creative designer for LF Daks

South Korean fashion retailer LF Corp. said Thursday that it appointed Luc Goidadin, the former chief design officer of British fashion behemoth Burberry, as the new creative director of its luxury brand, LF Daks. With Goidadin at the helm, LF Daks will be under an overall restructuring process for a higher brand value, LF said. Since 1983, LF has been operating LF Daks through a licensing contract with British-heritage luxury fashion house Daks. Under Goidadin's leadership, LF Daks plans t

Dec. 9, 2021

Foreigners turn net buyers of local stocks in November

Foreign investors purchased a net of about $2.52 billion worth of shares on South Korea's stock market in November as they picked up chips and other related tech shares, central bank data showed Thursday. That marked a turnaround from the previous month's net selling of local stocks by foreign investors valued at $2.65 billion, according to the data from the Bank of Korea. The net purchase was mostly driven by increased investment in chipmakers and related tech firms amid expectations their ov

Dec. 9, 2021

BOK to adjust loose monetary policy amid worries over inflation, pandemic

South Korea's central bank said Thursday that it will adjust the extent of its loose monetary policy stance "appropriately" in consideration of inflation, the pandemic and monetary policy directions of major economies. In a monetary policy report to lawmakers, the Bank of Korea (BOK) cited uncertainty linked to global supply disruptions, the resurgence of the coronavirus and the emergence of the omicron COVID-19 variant as major risk factors that could weigh on the economy. "As

Dec. 9, 2021

Jungheung inks Daewoo E&C takeover deal, vows managerial independence

Jungheung Group said on Thursday it has signed a binding sales and purchase agreement contract with KDB Investment to acquire a controlling 50.75 percent stake in Daewoo Engineering & Construction. With the contract, Jungheung looks to complete the takeover of Korea’s sixth-largest construction company by Feb. 15 next year, following an antitrust review of the deal to be filed before year-end. The proposed acquisition price was not disclosed. The South Korean builder group with 9.2

Dec. 9, 2021

Bond issuance in S. Korea edges down in Nov.

Bond issuance in South Korea inched down in November from the previous month amid rising interest rates, data showed Thursday. The value of bonds sold in Asia's fourth-largest economy stood at 65.8 trillion won ($56.1 billion) last month, down 200 billion won from a month earlier, according to the data from the Korea Financial Investment Association. Last month's decrease compares with an 8.4 trillion won on-month jump recorded in October. Sales of financial bonds declined by 2.5 trillion won

Dec. 9, 2021

S. Korea begins procedures to ratify Cape Town Agreement on fishing vessel safety

South Korea has begun domestic procedures to ratify the Cape Town Agreement on the safety of fishing vessels, the oceans ministry said Thursday. The agreement, adopted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in 2012, is meant to enhance safety onboard fishing vessels, including vessel construction and safety equipment, to prevent illegal fishing and to ensure the long-term sustainability of the fishing industry. South Korea, along with dozens other nations, vowed in 2019 to bring the

Dec. 9, 2021

Car-sharing app SoCar to launch integrated mobility services

SoCar, a South Korean car-sharing company, said Thursday it aims to launch an integrated mobility services that connects all transit options in one app next year. The envisioned "super app" will allow users to find multiple modes of transit, such as car-sharing, buses, trains, and electric bikes, to reach their destinations in the fastest and most effective manner, the company said in a statement. "The super app users can book an electric bike to reach a SoCar zone, a SoCar ve

Dec. 9, 2021

[Interactive] Internet banking users reach record high in H1

South Korea's internet banking services continued to grow in the first half of the year, with the number of users and daily transactions rising to new highs, central bank data showed. The number of internet banking users, including mobile banking, came to 186.5 million as of end-June, up 5.6 percent from six months earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea. The figure is the simple sum of all registered users of 18 internet and mobile banking service providers in the country, meani

Dec. 9, 2021

Tax revenue down W6.2tr in October

South Korea's tax revenue fell 6.2 trillion won ($5.3 billion) in October from a year earlier as the government delayed the payment of some taxes by small merchants and firms hit by the pandemic, the finance ministry said Thursday. The government collected 32.9 trillion won in taxes in October, compared with 39.1 trillion won a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Tax revenue increased every month between January and September from a year earlier as corporate tax inc

Dec. 9, 2021