Small but mighty, Ventex bets future on nano-materials

Ventex started off in 1999 as a tiny textile developer. Through a relentless search for new materials using nanotechnology, the Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province-based company is now building its global presence as a biochemical company. According to founder and CEO Go Gyeong-chan, the company is on course to achieve 34.8 billion won ($31.2 million) in sales this year, which is expected to more than double to 73.5 billion won next year. Driving the growth are disinfection and sanitization produc

May 11, 2021

Celltrion in talks with Mideast officials to export COVID-19 treatment

South Korean pharmaceutical giant Celltrion said Tuesday that the company has submitted marketing approval applications for the company’s COVID-19 treatment to health authorities in several countries in the Middle East. The countries include Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Iraq and Morocco. Celltrion’s announcement on Tuesday followed a day after the company said it landed its first overseas supply deal to export 100,000 vials of Regkirona to Pakistan. Celltrion expects

May 11, 2021

Moody’s ups Mirae Asset Securities’ rating from negative to stable

Global ratings firm Moody’s raised its rating outlook for South Korean securities firm Mirae Asset Securities from negative to stable, forecasting that regulatory measures by the financial authorities will likely curb the growth of the company’s risky assets. “The change from negative to stable takes into account Moody’s expectation of slower risk asset growth as a result of various prudential regulatory measures implemented by the Korean Financial Supervisory Service

May 11, 2021

[News Focus] Korea outstrips US, Japan in property taxes

SEJONG -- South Koreans shouldered a similar burden to US and Japanese nationals in property taxes, including those on real estate, in the mid-2010s, data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development showed. But recent figures indicate that Korea has far outstripped the US and Japan in the growth of property taxes, under which Koreans have been saddled with a much higher burden on capital gains from trading of apartments or land. According to the OECD, Korea saw the ratio of

May 11, 2021

[Market Close-up] Financial firms scurry to forge cross-industry partnerships for data-driven innovation

Cross-industry partnerships in the financial sector are in full swing as banks seek to transform personal data into a new revenue source, ditching their reliance on interest rates. Commercial lenders and credit card companies have been rushing to forge alliances with mobile carriers and retailers to compile large volumes of customer data from business partners in order to provide personalized products and to fuel data-driven marketing activities. The heating competition is ignited by the gove

May 11, 2021

Seoul stocks dip on inflation worries

South Korean stocks tumbled Tuesday, led by technology stock sell-offs, as investors' sentiment worsened over inflation woes. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 39.87 points, or 1.23 percent, to close at 3,209.43 points. Trading volume was high at about 1.1 billion shares worth some 21.2 trillion won ($18.9 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 447 to 419. Foreigners sold a net 2.2 trillion won, and retail investors pur

May 11, 2021

SK Inc. invests W40b in next-gen lithium-metal battery developer SES

SK Inc. said Tuesday it has invested an additional 40 billion won ($35.7 million) into a next-generation lithium-metal battery developer Solid Energy Systems after making an initial investment of 30 billion won in 2018. According to the holding firm of SK Group, the investment will allow the company to become the third-largest shareholder of SES after Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek and SES founder and CEO Qichao Hu. SES, which started as a spinoff of the Massachusetts Insti

May 11, 2021

Hanwha Solutions logs record net profit in Q1

Hanwha Solutions said Tuesday that its net profit in the first quarter surged 500 percent on-year to 385.2 billion won ($344.1 million), a record quarterly figure. Revenue increased 6.9 percent to 2.4 trillion won and operating profit spiked 52.4 percent to 254.6 billion won in the same period. “The record performance was propelled by a booming petrochemical business and the liquidation of some Galleria department store buildings,” a company official said. Hanwha Solutions was l

May 11, 2021

Korean banks brace for India’s COVID crisis

South Korean banks have launched emergency safety measures for their businesses in India, as the country grapples with the world’s worst COVID-19 outbreak. The spiking coronavirus infections and deaths in the world’s second-most populous nation has set yet another major hurdle for the banks’ overseas expansion goals, after Myanmar’s military coup put a damper on their plans. According to the watchdog Financial Supervisory Service, a total of eight banks have entered t

May 11, 2021

S. Korea reviews cybersecurity readiness amid US pipeline disruptions

South Korea's industry ministry said Tuesday it is examining its cybersecurity readiness of its energy-related infrastructure, as the United States grapples with a major ransomware attack that has disrupted its pipeline system. Industry Minister Moon Sung-wook held a virtual meeting with officials from state-run energy firms to thoroughly prepare for potential cyberattacks, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Last week, US-based Colonial Pipeline, a major pipeline system o

May 11, 2021

Accelerator Future Play raises W10B for expansion

Future Play, a South Korea-based accelerator, said on Tuesday that it has raised 10 billion won ($8.9 million) in the latest funding for its business expansion. Its Series B funding drew investment from LG International, DB Financial Investment, Prophet Asset Management, Futura, Data Solution and Hashed, said the company’s CEO and founder Ryu Jung-hee. The company plans to enter Indonesia later this month and introduce FuturePlace.AI, an online platform to provide tailor-made resources

May 11, 2021

Government urged to take swift action as small businesses reel from COVID-19

Self-employed business owners suffered a major setback last year, with half of all sectors posting revenue drops from the previous year totaling 19.4 trillion won ($17.42 billion), new data revealed Tuesday. According to data from the National Tax Service obtained by Rep. Choo Kyung-ho of the main opposition People Power Party, 29 out of 52 categories of self-employed business owners saw their revenue drop last year, with restaurateurs suffering the biggest loss as they saw 5.73 trillion evapor

May 11, 2021

LG Chem to commit W150b to local PEF in green bet

South Korea‘s battery materials maker and petrochemical firm LG Chem said Tuesday it plans to commit 150 billion won ($134 million) capital to a new private equity fund that targets promising companies dedicated to electric vehicle parts and ecofriendly plastics. The committed capital will be part of IMM Credit Solution’s upcoming growth-focused Korea Battery & ESG Fund, which aims to earmark a total of 400 billion won. IMM Credit Solution is a subsidiary of Korea‘s thir

May 11, 2021

Hanwha Asset unveils fund marketplace app

Hanwha Asset Management said Tuesday it has launched a new mobile app for retail investors wanting to buy a fund and go around third-party fund distribution channels. This is the latest move of South Korea‘s fourth-largest firm -- which has around 97 trillion won ($86.6 billion) in assets under its management -- to create its own online fund marketplace in a nation where tech-savvy consumers had few choices to buy funds other than through third-party sales channels of banks, securities br

May 11, 2021

Nonfungible token of historic human-AI Go battle up for auction

A nonfungible token of the historic match between between South Korean Go master Lee Se-dol and Google’s artificial intelligence Go player AlphaGo has been auctioned off as a digital content on OpenSea, the world’s largest marketplace for NFTs, officials said Monday.  A nonfungible token is a digital recreation of media contents such as videos and photos that is traded via the blockchain. Upon the purchase through the internet auction site, investors can declare ownership of

May 11, 2021

SKIET shares lose vitality after Kospi market debut

SK ie technology, a battery materials subsidiary of refinery and battery firm SK Innovation, rose on its market debut on the South Korean main board Tuesday, but lost value over the trading day, despite rosy market forecasts.  As soon as the opening bell rang, shares of SKIET started off at 210,000 won ($187.64), doubling its initial public offering price, but closed at 26.43 percent down from their opening price, at 154,500 won. On the first day of trading, the company’s market capi

May 11, 2021

Samsung loses top spot in 4 Southeast Asian smartphone markets in Q1: report

Samsung Electronics Co. lost its top spot in four major smartphone markets in Southeast Asia in the first quarter of the year, a report showed Tuesday, as it faced intensified competition with Chinese brands in the region. The South Korean tech giant logged a 19 percent market share in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam in the January-March period, down from 22 percent a year earlier and slipped to the runner-up spot, according to the latest report from market researcher Counterpo

May 11, 2021

KT Q1 net surges on 5G user growth, new tech biz

KT Corp., a South Korean telecom giant, said Tuesday its first-quarter net profit rose 43.7 percent from a year earlier on the back of growth in 5G users and new tech businesses. Net income for the January-March period stood at 326.5 billion won ($292 million) on a consolidated basis, compared with 227.2 billion won from a year earlier, according to a company regulatory filing. Operating profit reached 444.2 billion won, up 15.4 percent over the cited period, while sales increased 3.4 percent

May 11, 2021

Service output in 8 provinces, cities rises in Q1 amid economic recovery

Combined service output rose in eight provinces and major cities in South Korea in the first quarter, led by production gains in Seoul, as the economy is on a recovery track, data showed Tuesday. Seoul, three other cities and four provinces posted an on-year increase in service output in the January-March period, according to the data from Statistics Korea. Among them, service output in Seoul -- home to about one-fifth of the country's 52 million population -- rose at the fastest rate of 6.3 p

May 11, 2021

S. Korean shipbuilders lag behind Chinese rivals in new orders in April

South Korean shipbuilders lost their No. 1 ranking to Chinese rivals in terms of new orders in April, nine months after taking the top spot since July, industry data showed Tuesday. South Korean shipbuilders led by Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. obtained new orders of 34 ships, or 1.19 million compensated gross tons (CGTs), falling behind their Chinese rivals with 53 ships, or 1.64 million CGTs, according to the data provided by global market researcher Clarkson Research Service. South Korean sh

May 11, 2021