Seoul stocks open lower on profit-taking

South Korean stocks opened lower Wednesday as investors attempted to cash in gains. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 7.81 points, or 0.26 percent, to 3,041.27 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. The KOSPI got off to a lackluster start amid losses in tech and chemicals, while bio and auto stocks performed well. Top cap Samsung Electronics lost 0.98 percent to 70,400 won, and No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix traded flat at 102,000 won. Leading chemical firm LG Chem

Oct. 27, 2021

Pan Ocean Q3 net income up 325.2% to W179b

Pan Ocean Co. on Wednesday reported its third-quarter net income of 179 billion won ($153.4 million), up 325.2 percent from a year earlier. The company said in a regulatory filing that operating profit for the July-September period rose 204.1 percent on-year to 191.3 billion won. Revenue increased 109.4 percent to 1.32 trillion won. The operating profit was 21.5 percent higher than the average estimate, according to the survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency. T

Oct. 27, 2021

Samsung SDS Q3 net profit up 23.9% to W199.4b

Samsung SDS Co. on Wednesday reported its third-quarter net profit of 199.4 billion won ($170.8 million), up 23.9 percent from a year earlier. The company said in a regulatory filing that it posted 222 billion won in operating profit for the quarter, compared with 219.8 billion won a year ago. Sales rose 13.9 percent to 3.38 trillion won. The operating profit was 3.8 percent lower than the average estimate, according to the survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agenc

Oct. 27, 2021

Corporate direct financing gains 1.4% in Sept.

South Korea's corporate direct financing edged up in September from the previous month due to a surge in bond sales, data showed Wednesday. Local companies raised a combined 19.6 trillion won ($16.8 billion) by selling stocks and bonds in September, up 1.4 percent from a month ago, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). Corporate bond sales swelled 18.2 percent on-month to 17.6 trillion won in September. In contrast, local firms' stock sales tumbled 54.5 percent

Oct. 27, 2021

Consumer sentiment rises to 4-month high in October amid expanded vaccination

South Korea's consumer sentiment rose to the highest level in four months in October as an accelerated pace of COVID-19 vaccination raised hope for a return to normal life, central bank data showed Wednesday. The composite consumer sentiment index (CCSI) came in at 106.8 in October, up 3 points from the previous month, according to the data from the Bank of Korea. The reading is the highest since the index rose to 110.3 in June. A reading above 100 means optimists outnumber pessimists. The g

Oct. 27, 2021

W5tr flows into Kakao Pay IPO subscription

Kakao Pay, which is expected to go public on Nov. 3, attracted more than 5 trillion won ($4.2 billion) during the two-day public subscription for its initial public offering, according to its IPO managers on Tuesday. Based on the subscription number of 1.82 million, each subscriber is expected to obtain at least one stock and up to three depending on the brokerage firm they used. The new stocks available for retail investors number 4.25 million, or 25 percent of the 17 million new shares.

Oct. 26, 2021

KT apologizes for network outage

South Korean telecommunications provider KT apologized for Monday’s massive network outage, and for mistakenly citing a cyberattack as its cause. “We sincerely apologize for the massive internet disruptions on Monday. While we initially assumed it was from an outside DDoS attack, it appears to have been caused by a network routing error that occurred during our recent equipment update process,” said KT CEO Koo Hyeon-mo in a statement released Tuesday. Pledging to actively

Oct. 26, 2021

Korea to cut fuel tax by 20% next month

The government will slash fuel taxes by 20 percent and cut tariffs on liquid natural gas to near zero in November for six months to fend off inflationary pressure further building up with rising energy prices. According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, taxes on gasoline, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas will be cut by 20 percent starting Nov. 12, marking the highest tax cut in history. The temporary cut will end in April, the ministry said after a meeting with the ruling party. Autho

Oct. 26, 2021

Samsung to quickly finalize US fab investment: vice chairman

Samsung Electronics Co. will quickly decide on a foundry investment in the United States, a senior executive said Tuesday, as the South Korean tech giant seeks to become the world's No. 1 player in the logic chip and foundry sectors. Samsung Electronics, the world's No. 2 foundry firm behind Taiwan's TSMC, announced in May that it will build a $17 billion fab in the US Samsung's de facto leader Lee Jae-yong is widely speculated to visit the US, possibly next month, to finalize the site, with t

Oct. 26, 2021

Loan guarantees among conglomerate units soar this year

Loan guarantees among affiliates of South Korea's conglomerates soared this year from a year earlier due to the addition of more large business groups to the corporate watch list, the antitrust regulator said Tuesday. Of 40 conglomerate affiliates on the list, the total corporate debt payment guarantees by eight units reached 1.16 trillion won ($993 million) as of May 1, up 1,242 percent from 86.4 billion won the previous year, according to the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC). The jump was

Oct. 26, 2021

[KH Biz Forum] CJ’s journey for digital transformation

Digital transformation is accelerating in a wide range of sectors, but it is unclear what it actually means and what it should entail. Everybody seems to have their own definition of it, and to be conducting their own experiments. CJ Group Chief Digital Officer and CJ OliveNetworks CEO Cha In-hyok, noting his company as among those accumulating trials and experiments, shared the story of how he took the retail-to-entertainment conglomerate on its digital journey. Speaking at the Korea Herald

Oct. 26, 2021

[KH Biz Forum] Forum maps out path forward for Korea post-pandemic

South Korean business representatives, policymakers and government officials gathered at the fourth Korea Herald Biz Forum on Tuesday to share insights on new trends of industries in the post-COVID-19 era. Under the theme “Shape of the Future: Trends to Rule Industries as World Rebounds from Pandemic,” this year’s forum was held at The Shilla Seoul and was livestreamed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the speakers of the event were Lee Jeong-dong, professor of technolo

Oct. 26, 2021

[KH Biz Forum] New business opportunity in metaverse imminent: SKT VP

The contactless trend in the COVID-19 era and development of digital technologies have accelerated the advent of the metaverse, opening up a new market with limitless business opportunities.  People will spend more time in three-dimensional virtual spaces than they do on the two-dimensional internet, said Jeon Jin-soo, vice president of SK Telecom who is leading the firm’s venture into the metaverse world.  “Metaverse is the next internet platform. All 2D information wil

Oct. 26, 2021

Korea, US to set up hotline for semiconductor cooperation

Seoul and Washington have agreed to set up a hotline to discuss cooperation for the stable supply of semiconductors, and raised the level of an existing dialogue channel for industrial cooperation amid a worldwide shortage of chips. The South Korean government also repeatedly expressed concern over a recent US request for Samsung Electronics as well as other global chipmakers to provide information on their supply chains by Nov. 8, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said Tuesday. Seoul

Oct. 26, 2021

DataStreams, Arkdata sign MOU on enhancing data replication technology

Database replication solution companies DataStreams and Arkdata announced Monday they agreed to cooperate on big data. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding on exchanging technologies to enhance data replication and create a joint business model to expand into the market. DataStreams has a change data capture, or CDC, solution, which can merge data real-time through its transaction system and sends changes recorded in the source database to the target database. Arkdata was t

Oct. 26, 2021

Seoul stocks up for 2nd day on earnings optimism

South Korean stocks advanced for a second consecutive day Tuesday, backed by expectations for strong corporate earnings. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) advanced 28.54 points, or 0.94 percent, to close at 3,049.08 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 547 million shares worth some 9.2 trillion won ($7.9 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 574 to 271. Foreigners bought a net 106 billion won, while retail investors

Oct. 26, 2021

[KH Biz Forum] COVID-19 is an opportunity and Korea better take it: National Assembly Speaker

National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seug said Tuesday that the global digital and green transformation triggered by the pandemic is a necessary growing pain for South Korea to join the post-COVID world order. In his congratulatory speech delivered at the fourth Korea Herald Biz Forum held at the Shilla Seoul under the theme “Shape of the Future: Trends to rule industries as world rebounds from the pandemic,” the speaker called for business executives, policymakers and opinion l

Oct. 26, 2021

[KH Biz Forum] ‘Alternative energy alone won’t solve climate problem’

The world is talking about green energy to slash emissions and curb climate change. But without a drastic cut in the consumption of plastic and other waste, a net-zero economy just won’t happen, an environmental expert urged Tuesday. Speaking at the fourth Korea Herald Biz Forum on Tuesday, Hong Su-yeol, head of Resource Recycle Consulting, said the world needs to transition to a circular economy in which resources are used again and again in a closed loop and create no waste at all. &

Oct. 26, 2021

S. Korea’s economy sees slower-than-expected growth in Q3

South Korea’s economy has expanded at a slower-than-expected pace in the July-September period due to lackluster private consumption despite recovery in exports, central bank data showed Tuesday. The economy grew 0.3 percent in the third quarter, compared with a 0.8 percent growth in the second quarter and the corresponding figure of 1.7 percent in the first quarter, preliminary data released by the Bank of Korea showed. The third quarter reading falls short of the BOK’s Se

Oct. 26, 2021

[KH Biz Forum] Tech sovereignty ‘crucial’ in post-pandemic era

Technology plays a key role in a nation’s economic security, which is gaining ground as a new force behind the shifting world order, Seoul National University professor Lee Jeong-dong said Tuesday. “Defending a country was the basic concept of military security. However, with supply chains spanning across the globe now, it is only possible with economic security. And at the core of economic security is technological sovereignty,” said Lee, speaking at the fourth Korea Herald

Oct. 26, 2021