MBK Partners reaches $1.8b close for 2nd special situations fund

Private fund house MBK Partners said Wednesday it had reached a final close for its second flagship fund at $1.8 billion to invest under a “special situations” strategy. The East Asia-focused opportunistic fund, named MBK Partners SSF II, is estimated to be the largest special situations fund managed by an Asia-based investment firm since 2019, according to market intelligence service firm Preqin. Special situations refer to an investment strategy in which a fund manager bets on a

Nov. 17, 2021

Kyobo Life to complete IPO by H1 2022, hints at expanding financial services

South Korean insurer Kyobo Life Insurance plans to go public on the Korea Exchange by 2022, a process stalled due to a shareholder feud over the past few years, the company said Wednesday. The initial public offering will lay the groundwork for the company to turn into a financial group with a holding company structure to offer a wider range of financial services other than insurance, setting aside its yearslong battle against minority shareholders, according to the company. The life insurer,

Nov. 17, 2021

Seoul stocks open lower on tech, auto losses

South Korean stocks opened lower Wednesday, largely by losses in tech, auto stocks. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) fell 9.95 points, or 0.33 percent, to 2,987.26 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics edged down 0.14 percent, No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix lost 0.45 percent, and pharmaceutical giant Samsung Biologics retreated 0.92 percent. Hyundai Motor, the country's largest carmaker, moved down 0.73 percent, with its smaller affi

Nov. 17, 2021

Top comedian Yu Jae-seok joins Kakao Entertainment’s capital increase

Korea’s top comedian Yoo Jae-suk became a shareholder of Kakao Entertainment, the agency said Tuesday. “Yoo Jae-suk participated in the agency’s most recent capital increase, largely to strengthen his trust-based partnership with Yu Hee-yeol,” a Kakao Entertainment official said. Yu, CEO of K-pop agency Antenna, had invested 7 billion won ($5.9 million) in Kakao Entertainment after selling all the shares of his own company. Yu currently holds 0.07 percent of Kakao Ente

Nov. 16, 2021

Seoul stocks edge down after US-China talks

South Korean stocks inched down Tuesday as investors digest the results of video talks between the presidents of the United States and China. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) slipped 2.31 points, or 0.08 percent, to close at 2,997.21 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 567 million shares worth some 10.5 trillion won ($8.9 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 547 to 304. Foreigners bought a net 241 billion won, wh

Nov. 16, 2021

Mirae Asset Securities named to Dow Jones Sustainability World Index

Mirae Asset Securities said Tuesday it was listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index for the 10th consecutive year, receiving recognition for its commitment to socially responsible investment. As the first global sustainability benchmark, the DJSI World Index selects the top 2,544 listed companies based on their free-float market capitalization. It then evaluates the companies’ environment, social and governance performance and only picks the top 10 percent to be added to the i

Nov. 16, 2021

KRX sends warning on speculative transactions as NFT frenzy shakes up market

The Korea Exchange, the sole stock market operator of Korea, placed gaming company NCSoft under an investment caution on Tuesday, a day after an unnamed individual investor was disclosed to have sold 530,000 shares, or a 2.4 percent stake, in the company. The news came as a surprise to market watchers, as the same day trader was seen buying over 703,000 shares and sold 211,000 shares on Thursday -- when NCSoft shares hit the price ceiling at 786,000 won ($666.50) apiece from the previous closi

Nov. 16, 2021

Co-buying: Survival strategy for MZ generation amid real estate bubble

Kang, an office worker in his 20s, recently became a co-owner of a commercial building located in Seoul’s Gangnam district worth 10 billion won ($8.47 million) with a capital of only 5,000 won. “Earlier in December last year, I participated in a joint investment project led by a local fintech firm to buy a building named Yeoksam London Vill, a recently built eight-story commercial property in Gangnam. I invested 5,000 won and received 38 won as dividends in July, acquiring one sha

Nov. 16, 2021

Seoul stocks open lower on profit-taking

South Korean stocks opened lower Tuesday as investors attempted to cash in gains from the recent rally. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 4.66 points, or 0.16 percent, to 2,994.86 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. The KOSPI got off to a lackluster start amid losses in tech and auto heavyweights. Overnight, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite and the Dow Jones Industrial Average both retreated 0.04 percent amid lingering inflation concerns. Top cap Samsung E

Nov. 16, 2021

Small shareholders in Samsung Electronics top 5 million

The number of small shareholders in global tech giant Samsung Electronics surpassed 5 million amid massive stock investment by local retail investors, data showed Monday. Some 5.18 million investors held shares in the top-cap company as of the end of September, triple the tally a year earlier, according to the data from Samsung. Market watchers said a considerable number of local retail investors had bought into Samsung Electronics this year, given foreigners' continued selling of the mos

Nov. 15, 2021

SC Bank Korea sees quarterly profit jump 87-fold

Standard Chartered Bank Korea saw its quarterly net profit jump 87.2 times on-year to 79.4 billion won ($67.3 million) on a decrease in its future bad debts, filings showed Monday. The surge is attributable to a shrink in provision for credit losses -- an indicator of a financial institution’s future bad debt -- during the third quarter, as well as the increased interest income, according to filings submitted to the Financial Supervisory Service Monday. Notably, the provision for credi

Nov. 15, 2021

Real estate services startup Rsquare snaps up $72m funding

South Korean commercial real estate services startup Rsquare said Monday it has raised $72 million in series C funding from private equity firm STIC Investments. The proceeds will be used to enhance its property technology that powers its real estate services, strengthen its foothold in the Vietnamese market with a new business launched in June, expand its presence in other Southeast Asian countries including Singapore and Indonesia and hire new talents. STIC Investments is the sole investor

Nov. 15, 2021

More Korean REIT debuts garner investor attention

South Korea is poised to welcome a series of listings of real estate investment trusts by the end of this year, with their underlying assets increasingly diversifying, filings showed Monday. A REIT refers to a vehicle designed to offer dividend returns to its investors through incomes from securitized real estate assets, largely perceived as a risk-averse strategy. Seeing stronger investor demand for public REIT stocks this year, Korea will move onward to welcome at least three new REITs bef

Nov. 15, 2021

Seoul stocks close just shy of 3,000 on foreign and institutional buying

The South Korean stock market closed just shy of the 3,000-point mark Monday after a bullish session, led by strong foreign and institutional buying. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) rose 30.72 points, or 1.03 percent, to close at 2,999.52 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 631 million shares worth some 11.2 trillion won ($9.5 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 626 to 238. Foreigners bought a net 397 billion w

Nov. 15, 2021

Game companies’ shares surge amid growing hype over NFTs

South Korean game companies with new business plans to develop games using nonfungible tokens saw their share prices surge Monday, despite concerns over the market being overheated without actual plans laid out to materialize such a big agenda, experts said Monday. Nonfungible tokens refer to the digital counterparts of real-world assets, largely visual art or music, that guarantee ownership through the blockchain technology. Game developers enjoying a sudden spike in stock prices have announ

Nov. 15, 2021

Fractional trading of overseas stocks to expand soon

Fractional share trading of overseas stocks is expected to be in full swing by the end of the year, according to the Korea Securities Depository on Monday. The KSD said it has completed a system that supports fractional share trading for 20 brokerages after it was designated by the Financial Services Commission, the country’s financial regulator, as an innovative financial service in a sandbox program last week. In a fractional transaction, when an investor orders to buy less than one

Nov. 15, 2021

Watchdog slaps fine on Naver Financial for security issues

South Korea’s financial watchdog imposed a fine of 23.6 million won ($20,000) on Naver Financial and issued sanctions on its executives, citing the lack of security of its e-payment system and other violations tied to management, reports said Monday. According to local reports, the Financial Supervisory Service earlier this month slapped a fine on Korean portal giant Naver’s wholly owned financial technology unit and issued “warnings,” the lowest level of its five-tier s

Nov. 15, 2021

Shinhan Investment partners UK advisory firm to support bio firms’ overseas entry

Shinhan Investment said Monday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with PharmaVentures, a UK-based leading advisory firm providing whose main clients are health care life science companies, to diverse its investment banking services.  Under the partnership agreement, the two companies will boost cooperation in supporting South Korean biotech and pharmaceutical companies to advance to the global stage, while arranging international firms’ investments in the domestic health car

Nov. 15, 2021

Seoul stocks open higher on Wall Street gains

South Korean stocks opened higher Monday, taking a cue from the Wall Street gains. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) rose 16.43 points, or 0.55 percent, to 2,985.23 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite rose 1 percent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.5 percent Friday. Investors are waiting for the release of China's economic data and the virtual summit of the leaders of the US and China set for this week. China's October

Nov. 15, 2021

Number of Koreans with W1b in assets climbs 10%

Amid liquidity-driven booms in the real estate and stock markets amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people with assets of more than 1 billion won ($847,000) increased by over 10 percent last year from a year earlier, a report showed Sunday.  The number of Koreans with financial assets worth over 1 billion won stood at 390,000 last year, taking up 0.76 percent of the total population, according to the Korea Wealth Report 2021 released by KB Financial Group Research Institute. The

Nov. 14, 2021