The controversial Yongsan development project, which had been on the verge of bankruptcy, found a breakthrough on Thursday as two major shareholders reached an agreement ending confrontation on the project normalization plan. On Thursday, Lotte Tour Development, the second-largest shareholder of Dream Hub, announced that it accepted the normalization plan, offered by the state-run KORAIL, the largest shareholder in the project, in the hope of saving the nation’s largest property development proj

Industry Feb. 28, 2013

Hotel Lotte Co., the holding company of retail giant Lotte Group, is undergoing a tax investigation, industry sources said Wednesday. Company officials confirmed that inspectors from the National Tax Service are proceeding to examine the company’s financial documents at the hotel in downtown Seoul. They claimed the probe is part of a regular audit by the NTS. Industry sources, however, said the tax inspection of the affiliate of a chaebol, or family-controlled Korean conglomerates, could be link

Industry Feb. 27, 2013

The state-run Korea Trade Insurance Corporation, known as K-sure, said Wednesday it would join the Yamal liquefied natural gas project in Russia as a financial investor. The decision was made after Russia’s second-largest gas producer Novatek, which owns an 80 percent stake in the $25 billion project, visited the export credit agency to ask for financing for the project. K-sure said the amount of financing would be decided later after the project operator announced global engineering, production

Industry Feb. 27, 2013

Korea Midland Power, or KOMIPO, said it signed a civil work contact for its underground power plant project in Seoul with a local construction consortium. With the contact worth 226 billion won ($208 million), the state-run power generation company will be able to push for the world’s first underground power plant project, to be completed in September 2016. The project will build two units for the 400-megawatt, LNG-fueled power plant and the two units will be responsible of the stable electricit

Feb. 26, 2013

The coming Park Geun-hye government is expected to take a two-track policy of promoting exports of nuclear power plants while curbing expansion of the industry at home. The outline of 140 major projects that the presidential transition committee unveiled on Thursday said the new government will support exports of nuclear plants in an attempt to boost the economy. But it didn’t present a clear direction on the increase of nuclear reactors at home. The president-elect has continued to stress the s

Industry Feb. 22, 2013

More than 5,000 energy-related ministers, CEOs and experts from about 100 countries are expected to attend the 22nd World Energy Congress slated for October in Daegu, organizers in Seoul said on Thursday.The organizing committee also unveiled the first speaker lineup, including names and titles of 100 speakers, in a bid to attract more global attention to the event. “South Africa’s Energy Minister Dipuo Peters has recently confirmed his participation in the event as the 100th speaker,” the commi

Industry Feb. 21, 2013

A crucial decision on the future of the faltering Yongsan project, the nation’s biggest property development worth about 31 trillion won ($30 billion), is expected to come this week as the developer and major shareholders are set to hold a separate meeting.The state-run KORAIL, the largest shareholder in the project, will hold a board meeting Thursday to decide whether to back the issuance of asset-backed commercial paper worth 300 billion won ($278 million), one of last resorts to finance the p

Feb. 20, 2013

A trade deal between the European Union and the U.S would have little impact on the Korean economy, which has its own free trade agreements with the two major export destinations, experts in Seoul said on Thursday. “It is too early to talk about the detailed fallout of the EU and U.S. trade pact, but Korean exporters could be shielded by the two effective trade pacts with the U.S. and EU,” an official from the Korea International Trade Association said. Concerns have been raised over the afterma

Feb. 14, 2013

Government ministries and agencies will cut 10 percent of their basic operating expenses in their 2013 budget in an attempt to tighten their belts amid the protracted economic downtown, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance said Tuesday. “It is true the government asked for ministries to submit a plan to cut their basic operation costs by 10 percent,” a ministry official said. The cut will be made by reducing spending on administrative activities, information technology system operations and publ

Feb. 12, 2013