The Korea Herald

[Meet the CEO] Communication is key to brewery crown

For Oriental Brewery Co., October 2011 is a month the nation’s No.1 beer maker cannot forget: It recaptured the title of top brewery by finally edging out its archrival Hite Jinro, which dominated the beer market for about 15 years.Behind OB’s success, company officials agree, was an aggressive marketing push by CEO Jang In-soo, who was nicknamed by news media the “master of sales.” Speaking in an interview with The Korea Herald last week, the 58-year-old CEO picked his “communication” with sale

Business June 4, 2013

[Meet the CEO] Communication is key to brewery crown

Ewha graduates increase presence at foreign firms

Ewha Womans University graduates made up a significant share of graduate workers at foreign companies in Korea, a recent survey has indicated.Korea Foreign Company Employee’s Human Network, an online association of employees of foreign companies here founded in 1999, recently surveyed some 6,500 of its members.The online club said that 320 of its members, or about 5.6 percent of the survey participants, were Ewha alumni. Korea University won second place with 5.2 percent, followed by Yonsei Univ

Business June 3, 2013

Woori warned for not reporting money withdrawal

The nation’s top financial regulator decided to issue an institutional warning against Woori Bank for its failure to properly monitor a withdrawal of a large amount of money from the bank, sources said on Sunday.The Financial Services Commission will punish the bank and its executive as the lender failed to follow a regulation calling for a mandatory report to financial authorities about a withdrawal of 300 million won or more, the sources said.Former Mirae Savings Bank chairman Kim Chan-kyung,

June 2, 2013

FSC chief reaffirms sale of Woori Financial by 2014

Financial Services Commission chairman Shin Je-yoon has reaffirmed that the government will find a new owner for Woori Financial Group by 2014.The FSC chief picked the much-disputed privatization of Woori Financial Group as his do-or-resign financial agenda. “Our plan at this point is to fix the new owner by the end of 2014, although we may need more time for the rest of the legal paperwork,” Shin told reporters on Saturday.He stressed that the sale of Woori Financial was currently “headed towar

June 2, 2013

University chief, actress, Samsung exec among tax haven account holders

Businessman Kim Seok-ki and his wife and actress Yoon Suk-hwa have been included on the list of those who established paper companies in tax havens, a local journalists’ group said Thursday.The Korea Center for Investigative Journalism, a nonprofit organization also known as Newstapa, released five names ― three businessmen, a university president and an actress ― in its third announcement of the list of Koreans with offshore financial accounts allegedly to operate slush funds or evade taxes. Th

May 30, 2013

University chief, actress, Samsung exec among tax haven account holders

Shinhan’s products for kids, family gain popularity

Shinhan Bank’s family-targeted promotions have been increasing in popularity among customers, contributing to its sales growth.Shinhan sold about 1,400 of its “Shinhan Baby Plus Installment Savings” plans, raking in about 5 billion won ($4.4 million) in the past year. “The sales performance for the Baby Plus promotion is constantly growing. Baby Plus is designed to boost the birthrate and support prospective and current mothers,” a Shinhan Bank spokesperson said. The 12-month-maturity installmen

May 30, 2013

Shinhan’s products for kids, family gain popularity

Meritz under fire for delaying report on personal data leak

Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance Co. is under fire for reporting to regulators a massive leak of customers’ personal data three months after the fact. The insurance firm went through a massive leak of personal data of some 164,000 clients back in February, which went unreported to state regulator Financial Supervisory Service until Tuesday. The company issued a public statement and online apology about the delayed report the next day.“It was hard to understand how a case so severe got to us so lat

May 29, 2013

Seoul opens international dispute arbitration center

The Seoul International Dispute Resolution Center opened on Monday to help local and foreign companies operating in Korea settle international business disputes, officials said.The Korea Commercial Arbitration Board, the Seoul Metropolitan Government, lawyers and nonprofit organizations joined together to establish the IDRC.KCBA officials said the new arbitration hearing center was established to promote Korea as the East Asian hub of international law as well as its advanced environment for glo

May 27, 2013

FSC aims to increase financial sector’s share of economy

Financial Services Commission chairman Shin Je-yoon on Friday told the country’s financial group heads on Friday that the government would try to develop the financial industry by boosting sales of value-added products.Outlining a 10-year project, Shin said the country aimed to increase the relative weight of the financial industry to 10 percent of the country’s overall economic output.The participants in the meeting included Financial Supervisory Service head Choi Soo-hyun, KB Financial Group c

May 24, 2013

4 plant suppliers fined $1m for cartel

Korea’s antitrust regulator announced Thursday that it imposed $1 million (1.15 billion won) in fines on foreign plant engineering firms and their bid brokers over price-fixing to win bids.According to the Fair Trade Commission, two foreign plant engineering firms and two bidding brokers breached competition laws to win overseas deals from a large Korean construction company.The four players are Pall Korea Ltd of U.S.-based Pall Corporation, Germany-based Dahlman Industrial Group, IPEG ENG Ltd.

May 23, 2013

OCI admits accounts, Korean Air denies link

OCI chairman Lee Soo-young, former Korean Air vice chairman’s wife Lee Young-hak and DSDL chairman Cho Wook-rae are included on the list of 245 Koreans suspected of creating bogus companies in overseas tax havens.Disclosing the list at a news conference on Wednesday, Kim Yong-jin, head of the Korea Center for Investigative Journalism, said Lee of OCI admitted to the KCIJ about managing such accounts through paper companies. Lee told the KCIJ that the fund merely amounts to some hundreds of thous

May 22, 2013

Hana, KEB join hands for overseas CSR program

Hana Bank and the Korea Exchange Bank under the Hana Financial Group are stepping up their cooperation in their overseas joint social contributions.In Indonesia, the two banks joined hands to cook and hand-deliver 500 food boxes to households in poor areas in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. The Indonesian offices of Hana Bank and KEB came up with the food box run, which closely resonates with “served-hot meal donations,” which has been Koreans’ signature social charity activity. In the proces

May 21, 2013

Hana, KEB join hands for overseas CSR program

‘New Zealand wants early FTA with Korea’

Korea and New Zealand started negotiations to conclude a free trade agreement in 2009. But there has been little progress due to differences over certain issues, including Korean farmers’ concern about increased competition.Nevertheless, the head of New Zealand’s trade office in Korea expressed eagerness for a high level free trade agreement with Korea at an early date.“An FTA with Korea will increase trade in both directions. A free trade agreement between New Zealand and Korea is of major impo

Business May 20, 2013

‘New Zealand wants early FTA with Korea’

INCARINSU aims for W400b in sales

INCARINSU, the nation’s top insurance brokerage company, said it was aiming to sell 400 billion won ($350 million) in insurance products for this year.“We will raise the goal to 600 billion won next year, and we will do our best to ensure transparency and corporate ethics throughout our 2 trillion won goal for 2020,” company CEO Choi Byung-chae said. The insurer currently has some 950 branches and about 4,000 sales dealers nationwide. INCARINSU has won awards for job creation, and recently recru

May 19, 2013

Korea’s corporate debt to hit $2tr by 2017: S&P

Korea’s corporate debt is expected to reach $2 trillion by 2017 as non-financial firms increasingly issue debt and take out loans to service their obligations, a report by Standard & Poor’s said Sunday. This would lead debt to account for 122 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, or to the level seen in 2009, raising concern over Korea’s business fundamentals.S&P noted that it is generally dangerous for the corporate debt-GDP ratio to surpass 90 percent.Non-financial firms’ debt amoun

May 19, 2013

Articles by Chung Joo-won