The Korea Herald

SK considers legal action against Incheon City

Up to 1.6 trillion won ($1.5 billion) is about to go down the drain for SK, and the company is not going to stand for it. SK Incheon Petrochem, which was spun off from SK Energy last May, is considering taking legal action against the Seo-gu Office of Incheon City to rescue its faltering 1.6 trillion won investment project, SK Innovation, said the holding company of SK Group’s energy businesses. “The company will take all types of measures, including legal action, to put the investment project b

Industry Jan. 7, 2014

State-owned firms told to make drastic reforms

Land, housing, infrastructure and transport-related public enterprises, including the Land and Housing Corp., Korea Railroad Corp. and K-water, were urged to launch aggressive reform plan to improve their financial health and management efficiency, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said Monday. The request was made during a meeting on normalizing operations of 14 public firms under the ministry. The meeting, presided over by Minister Seo Seoung-hwan at the Sejong government comp

Jan. 6, 2014

Seoul shares likely to rise this week

Despite sharp falls in the first week of the year, the country’s stock market may gain ground this week on the back of optimism for a global recovery, stock market analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index, or KOSPI, finished at 1,946.14 last week, down 2.1 percent from a week earlier. The KOSPI declined for the second straight session on last Friday as the local currency’s rise against the dollar and the yen raised fears of a negative impact on exporters. Foreign investors u

Industry Jan. 5, 2014

Will tax cut help property market?

Hope for the revitalization of the nation’s real estate market, which has been in a slump since 2008, is greater than ever as the government lifted a heavy capital gains tax on multiple home owners on Jan. 1. Market experts, however, are divided on what effect the deregulatory measure will have on transactions. “The real estate market tends to swing psychological factors and so, I think that the abolition of the strongest tax-related regulation in the property market, following a tax reduction o

Jan. 5, 2014

Samsung bets on biotech

Samsung Group, the nation’s top conglomerate, is expected to make aggressive investments in its mainstay businesses this year, industry sources said on Sunday, adding its increased investments will be put on new growth engines. The group’s investments are poised to top 50 trillion won ($47.4 billion) this year, up from 49 trillion won last year.Samsung Electronics, the flagship company of the group, and Samsung Everland, the group’s de facto holding company, will each spend 84.7 billion won to b

Industry Jan. 5, 2014

Manufacturers downbeat on Q1

More local manufacturers are pessimistic about their business conditions in January-March than the past quarter, due to the planned U.S. monetary stimulus cuts and local currency‘s volatility, a poll showed Sunday.The survey of 426 companies by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade showed the Business Survey Index at 93 for the first quarter of the year, down 8 points from 101 for the October-December period of last year.The index g

Industry Jan. 5, 2014

Chaebol owners suffer $1b stock loss in 1st week

A jolting tumble in South Korean stocks in the first two trading days of the year has wiped out nearly 1.1 trillion won ($1 billion) in the value of stocks owned by chiefs of top 10 business groups, according to the data compiled by Chaebul.com, a chaebol research firm.The combined value of stocks held by the top 10 chiefs, including Lee Kun-hee of Samsung Group, reached 26.29 trillion won at the market closing on Jan. 3, down 4.2 percent from 27.44 trillion won on Dec. 30, the last session of 2

Industry Jan. 5, 2014

90% of regulator’s fines on conglomerates canceled

About 90 of fines levied on conglomerates by the financial regulator were later canceled by the courts last year despite initial rulings that sided with the regulator, data compiled by the Fair Trade Commission showed Sunday.The FTC’s records showed it has won 14 of the 21 lower court cases on corporate fines last year, a success rate in the upper 60 percent. The results are better, at over 80 percent, when smaller companies and individuals are also considered.“The FTC fines amounted to 4 trilli

Jan. 5, 2014

Homeplus union threatens strike

Unionized workers at Homeplus, the nation’s second-largest chain store owned by the U.K.’s Tesco, on Wednesday threatened to stage a strike from Jan. 9, calling for management to scrap the current half-hourly wage system.Having already held partial strikes, the unionists called for an hourly basis payroll, which was adopted by other chain stores including E-Mart and Lotte Mart. “The so-called half hourly payroll system is unheard of in the industry. Homeplus has been taking advantage of the syst

Industry Jan. 2, 2014

SK, GS eye foreign-invested projects

SK Group and GS Group, both of which are engaged in the refinery and petrochemical businesses, appeared to have received a leg up to push ahead with a stalled foreign-invested petrochemical facility expansion project worth 1 trillion won ($0.96 billion) each after a revised foreign investment promotion law passed the National Assembly on Wednesday.“We welcome the long-awaited deregulation measure. We will make all-out efforts to make a contribution to the revitalization of the economy by proceed

Industry Jan. 1, 2014

KEPCO to sell core assets to cut debt

The state-run Korea Electric Power Corp., the nation’s monopoly power grid company, is making all-out efforts to reduce its 55 trillion won ($52 billion) in debt. “The efforts include sales of not only non-core but also core assets at home and abroad,’’ a KEPCO official said Monday. The move came after the Ministry of Strategy and Finance in early December called on companies including KEPCO to take bold measures to reduce their debt. The ministry is responsible for the structural reform of stat

Industry Dec. 30, 2013

IT sector to drive economic growth

Polarization will continue to become a key feature of not only Korean society but also the landscape of industries this year, the Hana Institute of Finance said in its recent industries outlook report for 2014.“The export-driven Korean economy will be on a gradual recovery track in line with a pick-up of the global economy, but the polarization by industry and by corporate ranking within industries will intensify,” the report pointed out. By industry, the information technology sector, led by Sa

Dec. 30, 2013

Food industry rushes to raise prices at year-end

Concerns over a possible increase in consumer prices are rising as producers of some food items pushed up their key product prices at the end of the year. Orion Confectionery, the nation’s No. 1 snack maker, increased the price of its flagship snack brand “Choco Pie” by 20 percent on Thursday. The surprise move pushed up the price of a box containing 12 Choco Pies to 4,000 won ($3.79) from 3,200 won. It is the second price hike of the snack in 15 months, with the company raising prices 25 percen

Industry Dec. 27, 2013

Food industry rushes to raise prices at year-end

Shipbuilding industry to pick up next year: report

The nation’s shipbuilding industry, which has struggled for years since its peak in 2007, is on track for a recovery next year, boosted by a rebound in new orders, a report by the Woori Investment & Securities said. “The top three shipbuilders ― Hyundai Heavy Industries, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering and Samsung Heavy Industries ― are expected to raise their annual order target by 12 percent on average next year, compared with that of 2013,’’ the report said. Growing demand for liquef

Industry Dec. 26, 2013

Three-way competition takes root over No. 1 seed firm

Nongwoo Bio, the nation’s No.1 vegetable seed breeder, will be put on sale early next year as three local bidders submitted letters of intent for a takeover deal, according to industry sources. The three local bidders are STIC Investments, IMM Private Equity and the state-run National Agricultural Cooperative Federation Economics Group. Foreign seed giants like Monsanto, once aggressive bidders on local seed companies, did not jump into the race, sources said.Nongwoo Bio, which is listed on the

Industry Dec. 25, 2013

Three-way competition takes root over No. 1 seed firm

Articles by Seo Jee-yeon