S. Korea faces dilemma over cryptocurrency taxation

South Korea's financial authorities are moving to impose an income tax on cryptocurrency trading from next year, but investors in digital tokens have raised a nagging question about the proposed taxation. A growing number of cryptocurrency investors have cried foul over whether the government will collect a tax on virtual currencies while top policymakers see no intrinsic value in crypto assets amid a lack of regulations to protect cryptocurrency investors. Like many governments around the wo

April 23, 2021

Shinhan CEOs get slap on wrist over Lime scandal

The top executives of Shinhan Financial Group and Shinhan Bank received light sanctions Thursday over the sale of problematic funds structured by hedge fund firm Lime Asset Management.  A sanctions committee under the market watchdog Financial Supervisory Service handed down an admonition to Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byoung and a cautionary warning to Shinhan Bank CEO Jin Ok-dong for their lax oversight of the Lime fund misselling.  The decision was made late Thursda

April 23, 2021

S. Korea to import more eggs this month to stabilize prices

South Korea said Friday it plans to import more eggs this month in a bid to help stabilize rising prices of eggs that were caused by the outbreak of bird flu here. The country plans to bring in 40 million eggs in April, up from the initially planned imports of 25 million, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The ministry said it will push to increase the imports of eggs next month as well and take available steps to curb a sharp rise in egg prices amid a build-up in overall inflat

April 23, 2021

Seoul stocks open lower on US slump

South Korean stocks opened lower Friday, tracking an overnight Wall Street plunge that was spurred by a tax raise proposal in the United States. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 25.91 points, or 0.82 percent, to 3,151.61 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks deepened losses as investors weighed the impact of the potential tax hike on the wealthy in the United States on social spending. Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.94 percent, with the

April 23, 2021

Foreign ownership of S. Korean land increases 1.9% in 2020

Foreign ownership of South Korean land expanded nearly 2 percent in 2020 from a year earlier, the land ministry said Friday. Foreigners owned 253.3 square kilometers of land here as of the end of December last year, up 1.9 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The amount is slightly more than four times the size of Manhattan and accounts for 0.25 percent of South Korea's total land area. The value of land held by foreigners grew 3.1 perc

April 23, 2021

S. Korea's daily FX turnover jumps in Q1 on recovery in trade

The daily foreign exchange (FX) trading by banks in South Korea jumped 20.7 percent in the first quarter from three months earlier, thanks to a modest recovery in trade, central bank data showed Friday. The daily FX turnover came to an average $60.94 billion in the January-March period, up $10.44 billion from the fourth quarter of last year, according to the data by the Bank of Korea (BOK). It was the biggest three-month gain since 2008, when the BOK changed its method of compiling the data.

April 23, 2021

Biz lobby groups to submit joint letter recommending pardon of Samsung heir Lee

South Korea's major business lobby groups plan to submit to the government a letter recommending the pardon of Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, the de facto leader of Samsung Group who was convicted of bribery, sources said Thursday. The five major lobby groups -- the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Korea Enterprises Federation, the Korea Federation of SMEs, the Korea International Trade Association and the Federation of Middle Market Enterprises of Korea -- have rea

April 22, 2021

Samsung’s Lee denies charges in first court hearing on succession

Samsung Electronics chief Lee Jae-yong on Thursday denied all charges leveled against him during his first trial hearing on alleged irregularities surrounding his ascension to the helm of Samsung Group. Attending the session held at the Seoul Central District Court, Lee pleaded not guilty when he was asked by the presiding judge to respond to the charges brought against him by prosecutors which include stock market manipulation, illicit trading and breach of trust. “I cannot admit (to

April 22, 2021

BlackRock sells some of Coway stake

The world‘s largest asset management firm BlackRock has sold a 1.18 percent stake in South Korea’s home appliance rental service firm Coway for 50 billion won ($44.7 million), a filing showed Thursday. Following the transactions, the combined equity holding of BlackRock Fund Advisors and 13 affiliated entities in Coway has been reduced to 3.83 percent, and is no longer subject to filing obligations as a blockholder of the company, which specializes in door-to-door rental services o

April 22, 2021

Hyundai Motor, Kia see Q1 net profit jump in triple digits on-year

Hyundai Motor and Kia Corp. saw triple-digit gains in their first quarter net profit year-on-year, as key economies headed for recovery and global demands for high value-added models kept up. The two key affiliates of South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate Hyundai Motor Group held their respective earnings announcement Thursday, revealing the final business figures for the January-March period this year. The group’s flagship unit and the nation’s top automaker Hyundai M

April 22, 2021

Koreans favor fintech apps over those of banks: report

South Koreans used fintech company apps nearly nine times more than those operated by traditional banks every month last year, a report showed on Thursday, suggesting rapid growth of the digital finance market driven by its young and tech-savvy population. According to global mobile app analytics firm App Annie, mobile users of the nation’s top five fintech apps, such as payment solution Kakao Pay, Toss, and Kakao Bank, used the apps 225 times a month on average last year, tantamount to

April 22, 2021

Porsche on a roll in Korea, posts biggest sales in 2020

German luxury car brand Porsche had its best year in Korea in 2020, selling a record number of vehicles, the company said Thursday. Porsche Korea’s 2020 sales surpassed 1 trillion won ($900 million) for the first time since it set up a business presence here in 2014. With 7,779 units sold, South Korea was the automaker’s fifth-largest market in terms of annual sales, following China, North America, Germany and the UK, the company said. “Last year was a milestone, as more

April 22, 2021

S. Korea looks to Russia’s Sputnik V amid vaccine shortage

Faced with a COVID-19 vaccine shortage, South Korea is taking the first steps to consider Russia’s Sputnik V. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Thursday that it would collect clinical data on the Russian vaccine to study its efficacy and safety. The ministry has requested the help of the Foreign Ministry and its overseas missions for the collection of data from 12 countries where the vaccine has been rolled out, officials said. A Drug Ministry official, however, attempted to d

April 22, 2021

GS Engineering & Construction one step ahead of ESG trends

ESG -- short for environmental, social and corporate governance -- is the buzzword in the corporate world now. At GS Engineering & Construction, EGS efforts had already begun long before industries began paying attention to the trends. GS E&C, which received an “A” rating for its ESG efforts from the Korea Corporate Governance Service last year, has been listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Asia/Pacific Index for 10 consecutive years. In 2014, GS E&C joined the Korea

April 22, 2021

Dunamu’s Q1 profit likely to exceed market expectations on surging coin trades

Dunamu, the operator of Korea’s largest crypto exchange, has been enjoying its profit surging with transactions exceeding that of global competitor Coinbase, market data showed Thursday. For the first quarter of this year, Dunamu, which operates Upbit, Korea’s largest digital coin exchange by transaction volume, is expected to see revenue of 590 billion won ($528 million) with extreme profit rates. The company’s estimated operating profit is 544 billion won and net profit at

April 22, 2021

Seoul stocks rebound on bargain hunting

South Korean stocks rebounded Thursday as investors sought oversold stocks after the benchmark index took a breather the previous session. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) rose 5.86 points, or 0.18 percent, to close at 3,177.52 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 1.7 billion shares worth some 14.6 trillion won ($13.1 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 467 to 383. Foreigners sold a net 147 billion won, and insti

April 22, 2021

CU implements electric trucks for supply delivery

CU is implementing electric trucks for supply deliveries to its stores to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the convenience store chain said Thursday. BGF Retail, the operator behind the convenience store chain, said it is introducing Kia’s Bongo EV, the pure electric version of the automaker’s compact pickup truck. The trucks will be delivering products from BGF Logis Gwangju, its distribution center in Gyeonggi Province to midsized and large CU stores in Seoul’s Gangnam ar

April 22, 2021

KAI to develop smart manufacturing system for KF-21 Boramae production

Korea Aerospace Industries said Thursday it will invest 98.5 billion won ($88.3 million) to develop a customized smart manufacturing system and apply it first to the production of KF-21 Boramae fighters. According to the nation’s sole aircraft manufacturer, it will develop the smart manufacturing system by 2023 and apply the system to all of its business sites. The system will be modeled after KAI’s most advanced A350 smart factory located at its headquarters in Sacheon, South Gyeo

April 22, 2021

SK’s battery material unit eyes W2.25tr mega IPO in May

SK ie technology, a wholly owned battery materials subsidiary under SK Innovation, said Thursday that it was looking to raise nearly 2.25 trillion won ($2.02 billion) in fresh funds via an initial public offering on South Korea’s main bourse next month. While it plans to float about 21.4 million shares on the Kospi market in a price band of 78,000-105,000 won, some 8.55 million new shares are set to be issued. SK Innovation will sell 12.83 million SKIET shares for the IPO. The exact sh

April 22, 2021

Jeju Air to resume Incheon-Saipan flights next month after hiatus

Low-cost carrier Jeju Air said on Thursday it will resume the flights between Incheon and Saipan late next month. The decision to fly again to the western Pacific island from May 28 comes after a hiatus of over one year. Around March last year, airlines including Jeju Air suspended flights to multiple destinations across the world including Saipan as the number of coronavirus cases began to increase. Though the move will help Korean nationals living in Saipan as well as travelers, a mandatory

April 22, 2021