Blackstone-backed Simone Acc Collection pulls IPO plan

Blackstone-backed handbag maker Simone Acc Collection said Thursday it has dropped its plan to go public, dashing hopes for the New York-based private fund investor’s exit from its South Korean portfolio firm. According to the filing with the Financial Supervisory Service, Simone has canceled the upcoming plans for an IPO and listing on the Korea Exchange. Its lead underwriters were Samsung Securities and Mirae Asset Securities. The news came after its two-day book building targeting in

Oct. 21, 2021

LG CNS completes Korean Air’s digital transformation

LG CNS said Thursday the company has completed the transformation of Korean Air’s corporate information technology system into a public cloud service. The LG affiliate embarked on the project three years ago in partnership with Amazon Web Service. Turning a company’s IT system into a public cloud is a newly growing business for IT solution providers like LG CNS as companies start to accelerate their digital transformations. Korean Air’s cloud project marked a first in the

Oct. 21, 2021

LG pledges to create 39,000 jobs for young people

LG Group, the fourth-largest conglomerate in South Korea, on Thursday pledged to create a total of 39,000 new jobs over the next three years. The group’s Chairman and CEO Koo Kwang-mo unveiled the plan during a meeting with Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum at LG Science Park in Magok, western Seoul. The meeting was attended by the top brass of LG Group, including Vice Chairman Kwon Young-soo and President Lee Bang-soo. The meeting was part of the Korean government’s youth employment p

Oct. 21, 2021

Bitcoin inches closer to record high amid ETF launches

The world’s largest and best-known cryptocurrency, Bitcoin hit 80 million won ($67,900) on Thursday in Korea, inching closer to a historical high, following the much-anticipated listing of a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund in the US.  Bitcoin briefly touched 81.2 million won at around midnight, according to the largest crypto exchange Upbit on Thursday. On April 14, Bitcoin’s price reached its record high of 81.48 million won. As of 1:50 p.m, Bitcoin was trading at 79 million won

Oct. 21, 2021

Nuri rocket blasts off

Nuri, South Korea’s first domestically made satellite launch vehicle, lifted off from the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province, at 5 p.m. Thursday. The launch vehicle, weighing 200 metric tons, is now on its maiden flight to put a 1.5-ton dummy into low orbit some 600-800 kilometers above the Earth. Korea Aerospace Research Institute says it will know if the launch is a success around 30 minutes after liftoff. Designed and built entirely using Korean technology and

Oct. 21, 2021

Samsung, world's global brand value ranks 5th two years in a row

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s leading maker of smartphones and memory chips, was ranked fifth among the world’s top 100 corporate brands for the second year in a row, according to a consulting firm Thursday. The brand value of South Korea’s IT giant was estimated at $74.6 billion this year, increasing 20 percent from $62.3 billion last year, according to the list of 100 Best Global Brands announced by US-based Interbrand. This is the highest gain observed since 2013 an

Oct. 21, 2021

Lawmaker questions official housing price projection

Despite policymakers’ assurance of home prices having reached their peak, the government appears to have set tax revenue on a scenario of housing values rising further next year. Rep. Yoo Gyeong-joon of the main opposition People Power Party on Thursday, quoting a state-funded study, said that the government’s tax revenue next year has been drafted based on its own estimation of housing prices in Seoul and the surrounding area growing 5.1 percent, According to the study conducted

Oct. 21, 2021

KB Financial Group Q3 net profit up 9.3% to W1.3tr

KB Financial Group Inc. on Thursday reported its third-quarter net profit of 1.3 trillion won ($1.1 billion), up 9.3 percent from a year earlier. The company said in a regulatory filing that it posted 1.78 trillion won in operating profit for the quarter, compared with 1.41 trillion won a year ago. Sales rose 56.4 percent to 16.47 trillion won. The operating profit was 7.1 percent higher than the average estimate, according to the survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap New

Oct. 21, 2021

Samsung SDI begins test run of cathode factory in S. Korea

South Korean battery maker Samsung SDI Co. said Thursday it has began its test run of a cathode-producing factory, jointly set up with a local cathode manufacturer. The EcoPro EM factory, located in Pohang, 374 kilometers southeast of Seoul, will conduct the test run until the end of this year before starting the mass-production of cathode from the first half of next year. Cathode is a key component that determines the capacity and average voltage of a lithium-ion battery. Samsung SDI and E

Oct. 21, 2021

Merck’s M Lab Collaboration Center marks 5th year anniversary

Merck, the German science and technology group, on Thursday celebrated the fifth anniversary of its M Lab Collaboration Center in Songdo, Incheon. The M Lab Collaboration Center is a research facility established to support local pharmaceutical and bio industry experts with hands-on and virtual training. “Since its establishment in 2016, our Songdo M Lab Collaboration Center has supported more than 100 biopharmaceutical and biotech customers including Samsung Biologics, Celltrion and SK

Oct. 21, 2021

Seoul stocks down for 2nd day over inflation woes

South Korean stocks closed lower Thursday after a choppy session, as the hopes for economic recovery is balanced against concerns about fast inflation. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 5.8 points, or 0.19 percent, to close at 3,007.33 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 871 million shares worth some 10.3 trillion won ($8.7 billion), with loser outnumbering gainers 563 to 297. Foreigners bought a net 42 billion won

Oct. 21, 2021

7 out of 10 Korean restaurants serve imported kimchi : report

Seven out of 10 restaurants in South Korea serve kimchi made in another country, said a local research institute in a report released Thursday. According to the Korea Foodservice Research Institute, which looked into the country of origin of food ingredients used at 976 restaurants across the country, 40 percent of the surveyed use kimchi made outside of Korea. Another 28 percent use both locally made and imported kimchi while 31.2 percent stick to Korean made kimchi. Most of the imported

Oct. 21, 2021

8 in 10 young Koreans invest in stocks, crypto to buy home: data

Eight out of 10 young Koreans are currently investing in stocks, funds, cryptocurrencies and other assets, and their main purpose behind making such investments is to buy a home, a survey showed Thursday. According to the survey conducted by insurance agency Rich Planner Consulting Co. on 1,000 Koreans in their 20s and 30s, 88.2 percent of them answered they are investing in stocks. Nearly 35 percent said they are trading cryptocurrency. For the purpose of investment, 42.2 percent of young in

Oct. 21, 2021

SK Plasma to supply blood products to Singapore

SK Plasma, a subsidiary of SK Discovery, said on Thursday it has been selected as the provider of blood products to Singapore for six years from 2023. As the first South Korean pharmaceutical company to win an order in Singapore’s state-run blood product project, SK Plasma will sign a contract with the Southeast Asian country this year, and produce albumin and human immunoglobulin using blood plasma from Singapore. Singapore’s Health Sciences Authority is known for having high qual

Oct. 21, 2021

Shinhan Bank opens Hungary office

Shinhan Bank said Thursday it has opened an office in Hungary, becoming the first South Korean commercial lender to enter the central European country. The flagship lender under the nation’s No. 1 banking group by assets said it was granted the license to operate by the Hungarian National Bank in September and opened the office Tuesday. It also marked Shinhan’s latest overseas market entry since the launch of its subsidiary in Mexico in 2018. The new office is expected to bolste

Oct. 21, 2021

New law to foster Koreans’ private credit deals

South Korean private fund managers are poised to take advantage of revised rules and dedicate themselves to the domestic nonbank lending business with legal clarity. Starting Thursday, when amendments to the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act went into effect, private funds comprising no more than 100 backers are entitled to carry on private credit strategies in Korea. Under the new rules, any Korea-domiciled private fund may extend nonbank loans to corporations. Direct loan

Oct. 21, 2021

Samsung Heavy wins approval for storage tank, carrier for hydrogen transport

Samsung Heavy Industries Co. said Thursday it has won an approval in principle (AIP) for the conceptual design of a storage tank and carrier to transport liquefied hydrogen, from Lloyd's Register, a British ship quality assurance and risk management company. AIP for the conceptual design means a certification agency has reviewed it and confirmed it meets the agency's technical requirements and standards for safety. The conceptual design of a membrane-type storage tank and 160,000-cubic meter

Oct. 21, 2021

Daewoo Shipbuilding grabs W232b order for 1 LNG carrier

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME) said Thursday that it has bagged a 232.2 billion won ($197.6 million) deal to build a LNG carrier. The deal, signed with an Oceanian company, calls for DSME to deliver the vessel by September 2024, the shipbuilder said in a regulatory filing. Not including the latest deal, DSME has won $8.58 billion worth of orders so far this year for 46 ships, one wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV), one submarine and two offshore facilities, alrea

Oct. 21, 2021

Number of chickens dips 4.2% in Q3 due to bird flu

SEJONG -- The number of layer chickens raised in South Korea dropped 4.2 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier due to the impact of the bird flu outbreak, data showed Thursday. The number of layer chickens came to 70.7 million as of end-September, compared with 73.8 million a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea. Yet it was up from 65.9 million three months earlier and 62.1 million as of end-March, which was the lowest in more than three years. The on-year decr

Oct. 21, 2021

Doosan Heavy signs maintenance deal for UAE nuclear plant

South Korean power plant builder Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co. said Thursday it has signed a maintenance service deal for a reactor at the Barakah nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Under the deal with Nawah Energy Co., the operator of the nuclear power plant, Doosan Heavy will conduct maintenance services for turbines, generators and parts related to the nuclear reactor of the nuclear power plant for three months beginning in April 2022, it said in an emai

Oct. 21, 2021