Despite lingering management risks, tech giant Kakao may see a surprise increase in its stock price this year, with analysts bullish on its advertising and commerce businesses. According to market intelligence firm FnGuide, Kakao's target price, provided by more than three analysts, was 69,458 won ($51.90) as of Sunday, up 10.6 percent from 62,783 won recorded at the end of last year, marking the highest increase rate among the target prices of the top 20 firms listed on the Korean stock ma

Market Feb. 4, 2024

Industrial Bank of Korea Chairman and CEO Kim Sung-tae convened a meeting with top executives from the bank's subsidiaries and branches at the IBK training center in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province, on Friday, marking the start of his second year in office. Emphasizing the bank's pivotal role in "driving Korea's economic growth by leveraging policy financing for small and medium-sized enterprises," Kim underscored the importance of boosting support for small business

Industry Feb. 4, 2024

Hana Securities, the brokerage unit of South Korean finance giant Hana Financial Group, on Thursday announced it has established a new foreign investment team. According to the Hana subsidiary, the move comes in response to the recent abolition of the foreign investors' registration system by the local government. Starting in December, South Korea scrapped a 30-year-old policy that required foreign nationals to register with the local financial regulators to open an account and trade on the

Market Feb. 1, 2024

Citibank Korea said Wednesday it sponsored the ninth Climate Action Conference, held on the previous day at a hotel in central Seoul. The event was jointly hosted by the Korean chapter of the World Wide Fund for Nature, United Nations Global Compact Network Korea and Korea Sustainability Investing Forum. According to the bank, this year's conference was devoted to providing practical guidance for the local companies trying to engage in the global Science-Based Targets Initiative, while intr

Industry Jan. 31, 2024

Energy-to-defense giant Hanwha Group said Wednesday its shipbuilding and machinery manufacturing affiliates presented their state-of-the-art defense technologies to the head of Canada‘s leading global affairs research group, in the companies' efforts to expand their footing in the North American market. According to Hanwha, Dr. David Perry, the president of Canadian Global Affairs Institute, took an extensive tour of Hanwha Ocean and Hanwha Aerospace's facilities during his visit

Industry Jan. 31, 2024

Fears over a future US decoupling from China and protectionist policies are looming large among South Korean companies as former US President Donald Trump emerges as the potential Republican presidential nominee in this year's election. One of the most substantial risks of a possible second term for Trump is his "America-first" policy agenda and the many geopolitical uncertainties rising from it, including the US potentially decoupling from China, according to a report released by

Industry Jan. 30, 2024

The South Korean central bank on Thursday said it will start to buy or sell securities with non-banking finance institutions in open markets, expanding the scope of entities subject to its key monetary policy instrument to control the money supply in the economy. With the latest change in the Bank of Korea's open market operations, local asset management firms, mutual savings banks and credit unions will now be eligible to engage in repurchase agreements (repos) for securities transaction

Economy Jan. 26, 2024

The National Agricultural Cooperative Federation on Thursday elected Kang Ho-dong as the 25th NongHyup chairman, marking the first time in 17 years for the cooperative to have a directly elected chairman at its helm. The federation, South Korea's biggest agricultural cooperative comprised of 2 million members, is expected to see a significant reshuffling of the federation's governance structure under the new leadership. The former head of the Yulgok Nonghyup chapter in Hapcheon-gun, So

Industry Jan. 26, 2024

The state-run Export-Import Bank of Korea said Thursday that it has launched a Saudi Arabia desk to ramp up support for local firms expanding their businesses in the Middle East. According to the bank, the new desk will take charge of coordinating and supporting the private sector, not just within Saudi Arabia, but in the Middle East overall. While the team will be based in Seoul, an employee will be dispatched to Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh, and will collaborate closely to discover new

Economy Jan. 25, 2024

South Korea's ambitious multibillion-dollar arms export deals with Poland may be at risk, as the National Assembly continues to sit dormant on a bill that must be passed in order to for the deals to come through. Having signed an initial comprehensive arms export agreement worth 17 trillion won ($12.7 billion) for tanks, howitzers and fighter jets in July 2022, the related Korean defense companies -- Hyundai Rotem and Hanwha Aerospace -- and the Polish government have been negotiating to fo

Industry Jan. 24, 2024

South Korean internet-only lender Kakao Bank said Tuesday that the annual international transfers made on its app exceeded $1 billion last year. The figure is the highest annual overseas remittance via Kakao Bank since the company started its service in July 2017, the firm said, adding that the cumulative amount of outbound remittances on the app had reached $5.4 billion. Users of Kakao Bank can make international wire transfers to 22 countries in 12 currencies via the company's own foreign

Industry Jan. 23, 2024

More people work at large companies in South Korea, with the number of people employed by conglomerates reaching a record high last year. According to recent data from the Korean Statistical Information Service, the number of people working at companies with over 300 employees reached an all-time high of 3,087,000 last year. This is the first time that the figure reached the 3 million milestone since the statistics agency started compiling such data in 2004. The ratio of people working at large

Economy Jan. 22, 2024

Losses inflicted on Korean investors from derivatives tracking the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index are swelling even faster than expected, as the notorious Hong Kong index has dipped further recently. The HSCEI, which had remained at around 5,500 points since late 2023, has dropped dramatically in the last week or so, sinking by 11.12 percent just this year to close at around 5,127 on Friday. The plunge means a larger toll on investors here, as South Korea braces for the maturation of some 10.

Industry Jan. 21, 2024

Korean internet-only bank, Toss Bank, on Thursday rolled out its first foreign exchange service, pledging not to charge users any fees for converting foreign currencies. Under the new scheme, all users who open a foreign currency account on its banking app can exchange 17 foreign currencies in real-time and around the clock, without paying any fees for a lifetime. Until now, local banks have sometimes offered a reduction in or removal of currency conversion fees as part of special promotions. Bu

Industry Jan. 18, 2024

As local card issuers struggle to seek new growth engines on foreign ground, a handful saw improvements in 2023. Making a surprise breakthrough overseas last year was Woori Card, which posted a cumulative net profit of around 6.25 billion won ($4.64 million) as of the third quarter through its foreign subsidiaries in Myanmar and Indonesia. The figure was up by almost 78 percent on-year. Driving the flourish was Woori Finance Indonesia, the Korean card company's newly launched Indonesian cor

Industry Jan. 17, 2024