SK Telecom eyes governance improvement to boost shareholder value

SK Telecom Co., South Korea's largest wireless carrier, said Thursday it will revamp its governance structure this year in a way that boosts shareholder value. CEO Park Jung-ho told shareholders that the company will announce changes to its governance structure "soon," admitting its share price has remained largely lackluster despite its strong earnings last year. "Our market cap does not properly reflect the value of our subsidiaries and businesses," Park said in an annual

March 25, 2021

Midsized firms' Q2 biz outlook recovers to pre-pandemic level

South Korean midsized companies' business outlook for the second quarter has recovered to pre-pandemic levels amid a recovery in automaking and related sectors, a poll showed Thursday. The Federation of Middle Market Enterprises of Korea said its business survey index (BSI) of the country's top 500 midsized firms stood at 89.5 for the April-June period, up 5 points from three months earlier. It marks the first time for their outlook reading to surpass the pre-coronavirus level of last year's f

March 25, 2021

Construction contracts surge 18.7% in Q4

SEJONG -- The value of construction contracts in South Korea jumped nearly 19 percent in the fourth quarter of 2020 thanks to increased private and public projects, government data showed Thursday. The value of civilian and public works contracts stood at 82.4 trillion won ($72.7 billion) in the October-December period, up 18.7 percent from the same period a year ago, according to the data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Public sector contracts swelled 24.9 percent on-

March 25, 2021

Doosan Mobility teams up with POSCO unit for hydrogen fuel cell parts

Doosan Mobility Innovation (DMI), a producer of portable fuel cell power packs, said Thursday that it has joined hands with Posco SPS, a steel processing company, to develop a key component for hydrogen fuel cell power packs for drones. Under a preliminary deal with Posco SPS, a unit of Posco International Corp., DMI will develop metal plates, 20 micrometers in thickness, to be used for hydrogen fuel cell power packs for drones. DMI, an unlisted unit of Doosan Corp., the holding company of Doo

March 25, 2021

[Newsmaker] Coupang says deceased courier new on the job and had health problems

Local e-commerce giant Coupang Inc. said Thursday that its parcel delivery worker who died the previous day while working was suffering from heart-related abnormalities and was only on his second day on duty. The 43-year-old Coupang courier, whose identity was withheld, was found unconscious at a residential area in Incheon, 40 kilometers west of Seoul, at 12:57 p.m. Wednesday and pronounced dead while being transferred to a hospital. The courier's death immediately triggered speculation that

March 25, 2021

BOK to extend financial support for pandemic-hit small merchants, SMEs

South Korea's central bank said Thursday it will extend financial support for smaller merchants and firms by six months to help them ease a funding squeeze amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The financial support of low-rate loans worth 16 trillion won ($14.1 billion) had been scheduled to end this month, but the Bank of Korea (BOK) said the scheme will be put in place by September. Under the scheme, the BOK provides funds to local banks at an interest rate of 0.25 percent to encourage them to exte

March 25, 2021

Samsung rolls out Micro LED TV in Southeast Asia

Samsung Electronics Co. said Thursday it began to sell the company's first Micro LED TV in Southeast Asian countries as the world's largest TV maker plans to boost premium TV sales amid the pandemic-induced stay-at-home trend. Samsung said its 2021 TV lineup, including the Neo QLED TV, which uses Quantum Mini LEDs that are just 1/40th the size of conventional LEDs, was launched in Singapore on Wednesday and will be available in other Southeast Asian countries next month. Before Singapore, Sa

March 25, 2021

LG Electronics expanding investment in auto parts biz for future

LG Electronics Inc. has invested more than 4 trillion won ($3.5 billion) in its automotive business in the recent five years, its report showed Thursday, as the South Korean tech giant eyes beefing up its future growth engine. The investment from LG's vehicle component solutions (VS) division was 587.8 billion won in 2017, 1.7 trillion won in 2018, 629.3 billion won in 2019 and 472.1 billion won in 2020, according to the company's business report. It plans to spend 613.8 billion won in 2021.

March 25, 2021

Number of female stock investors doubles in 4 years

The number of South Korean women investing in stocks has doubled over the past four years amid an equity investment craze, data showed Thursday. Asia's fourth-largest economy had 3.88 million female stock investors as of the end of December last year, compared with 1.94 million four years earlier, according to the data from the Korea Securities Depository (KSD). The growth rate is much higher than the 77.8 percent increase in the number of male stock investors to 5.21 million from 2.93 millio

March 25, 2021

Seoul stocks open higher on bargain hunting

South Korean stocks opened higher Thursday after four days of losses as investors bought on expectations of stock price hikes. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 8.38 points, or 0.28 percent, to 3,004.73 points in the first 15 minutes of trading amid foreign buying. Stocks rebounded to positive terrain after the first five minutes, as impacts from news reports that North Korea launched two projectiles into the East Sea rapidly subsided. Market kingpin Samsung Elect

March 25, 2021

Shareholders approve new Hana Financial chief, Mirae Asset name change

Hana Financial Investment shareholders approved the appointment of a new CEO on Wednesday -- a former vice chairman of global business at Hana Financial Group who has pledged to strengthen digital innovation and sharpen global competitiveness. As both shareholders and board members of the brokerage arm of Hana Financial Group agreed to welcome the new leader, 47-year-old Lee Eun-hyung is now the nation’s youngest chief within the securities industry. Hana Investment identified the CEO as

March 24, 2021

What lies in future for Korean Air?

Battered by the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent traveling limits, South Korea’s national flag carrier Korean Air hit the rockiest patch of its half-century history last year. While there seems to be hope on the horizon on the back of the acquisition of longtime rival Asiana Airlines, the air carrier is still looking at another challenging year -- this time due to the uncertainty of the post-coronavirus recovery and slow vaccine distribution. In the latest developments

March 24, 2021

NPS seeks greater say at companies amid growing shareholder activism

In a bid to uphold shareholders’ rights, South Korea’s state pension fund is seeking a greater say in companies in which it holds considerable stake, drawing market attention toward decisions it would rarely have made before. The National Pension Service said Wednesday that it had decided to vote against the appointments of some board members at the nation’s largest airline, Korean Air, at the airline’s shareholders meeting scheduled for Friday. They include Cho Won-t

March 24, 2021

Crypto exchanges see sales surge amid hope for mega deals

Amid months of bullish cryptocurrency markets, digital coin trading volume is enjoying a stellar performance, raising expectations for a high market valuation of their businesses. The country’s two largest crypto exchange operators -- Dunamu and Bithumb Korea -- both recorded a hike in sales and revenue last year, backed by increased transactions from November, when the largest digital coin Bitcoin rose above 20 million won ($17,640) for the first time in 34 months. Dunamu, the operat

March 24, 2021

Georgia lawmakers urge Korean battery firms to settle

In a notable shift of tone, senators in the US state of Georgia have called on LG Energy Solution and SK Innovation to resolve their battery patent disputes on their own. According to media reports Wednesday, the Georgia Senate unanimously passed a resolution on Tuesday US time, which calls on two battery makers to negotiate a settlement so that SK could continue building two battery factories in the state. A draft of the resolution had reportedly been directed toward President Joe Biden,

March 24, 2021

Hyundai Motor Group wraps up generational shift in leadership

Hyundai Motor Group’s key affiliates held their annual shareholders meetings Wednesday and addressed pending issues such as reshuffling boardrooms, enhancing ESG policies and revamping business in keeping with the post-coronavirus market trends. A notable change was that the group efficiently wrapped up the generational shift in its leadership, with the senior honorary chairman stepping down from all his official posts and fully clearing the track for his recently inaugurated son. Chung

March 24, 2021

Pulmuone aims to challenge Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods in plant-based food

Amid the growing popularity of plant-based proteins as healthy and eco-friendly alternatives to meat, Pulmuone aims to become a leader in the plant-based food industry, the company said Wednesday. The South Korean food company’s Plant Protein Meal Bureau will release new products domestically and globally, in countries including the US, China and Japan, it added. Pulmuone, which revealed a three-year plan for the plant-based food push, chose six categories to focus on: plant-based pro

March 24, 2021

Chipmakers show mixed reactions to Intel foundry plan

South Korea’s semiconductor industry on Wednesday showed mixed reactions to Intel’s bid for the foundry business, agreeing with the US chip giant’s decision on the need for manufacturing not only its own chips but also chips for others at a critical time of global chip shortage. During its Engineering the Future event on Tuesday, US time, Intel’s new CEO Pat Gelsinger said the company will set a new branch named Intel Foundry Services and invest $20 billion to build t

March 24, 2021

Seoul stocks down for 4th day on virus resurgence concerns

South Korean stocks retreated for a fourth consecutive session Wednesday as concerns over the resurgence in virus cases in Europe and the United States cast doubts over a prompt recovery from the pandemic. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 8.39 points, or 0.28 percent, to close at 2,996.35 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 965 million shares worth some 13.1 trillion won ($11.6 billion), with gainers outnumbering l

March 24, 2021

Incheon Airport to host aviation conference in celebration of 20th anniversary

Incheon International Airport Corp. will host the fifth Annual World Aviation Conference on Monday in celebration of its 20th anniversary. The event, which will take place at Paradise City in Incheon and will be livestreamed on YouTube for seven hours, will focus on the age of coronavirus and the post-pandemic future of the aviation industry and airports around the world, the corporation said. Dubbed “Innovation Beyond Boundaries: The New Airport Paradigm,” the event will feature s

March 24, 2021