South Korean private equity house Korea Corporate Governance Improvement appears to be in a predicament as its hostile takeover bid for Hanjin KAL is being overshadowed by the Korea Development Bank’s tighter control over the parent company of flag carrier Korean Air Lines. This comes as a KCGI-led consortium, which took issue with the “poor governance” displayed by the transportation group’s owner family and sought to bring in professional managers to replace incumbent

Market March 18, 2021

South Korea’s private equity firm JKL Partners is poised to inject 80 billion won ($70.7 million) in Korean low-cost air carrier T‘way Air in April, a filing showed Wednesday. JKL Partners was offered the opportunity to buy some 31.8 million convertible preferred shares in T’way’s capital increase, so that T’way Air can use its proceeds to pay the cost of airplane lease and maintenance. The securities offering plan to the third-party investor gained board approval

Market March 17, 2021

Coupang founder Kim Bom-suk has divested his stake in the South Korean e-commerce giant worth $42 million, a filing showed Tuesday. According to the disclosure, Kim converted his Class B stocks into 1.2 million Class A common shares and then on Monday sold all the shares of the same class for the offering price of $35 apiece, which was fixed last week. Coupang‘s Class B shares give Kim 29 times more voting rights than Class A shares. A prospectus filed to the US Securities and Exchange C

Market March 16, 2021

The Korea Development Bank, a major creditor of debt-saddled SsangYong Motor, said Monday that the commercial vehicle maker and its labor union had been “uncooperative” when dealing with the proposed acquirer led by US car retailer HAAH Automotive, which clouds prospects for the deal. Their passivity -- failing to present a reorganization plan swiftly and hinging on state financial support -- stands in contrast with the endeavors of the company’s India-based major shareholder,

Market March 15, 2021

Schroders Korea said Monday it had pooled over 100 billion won ($88 million) from South Korean end-investors earlier this month through its fund product that is designed to hold a portfolio of its flagship global sustainable equity fund. This is the first to reach the milestone among Korean funds dedicated to foreign equities while taking environmental, social and governance factors into account, according to Schroders Korea. Schroders Korea has raised Koreans’ capital for th

Market March 15, 2021

The race to bid for unlisted companies‘ next initial public offering bonanza among South Korean investors is intensifying, data showed Sunday, as the recent high-profile deals including Coupang’s $4.6 billion US IPO whet investor appetite. Krafton, which develops and publishes battle royale game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, saw its trading price spike on over-the-counter platforms here. The game developer is the country’s largest unicorn -- a term used to describe a

Market March 14, 2021

US investor BlackRock said Wednesday it has increased its stake in South Korea‘s largest banking group KB Financial Group to 6.02 percent, from 5.01 percent in May 2014. According to the disclosure, BlackRock Fund Advisors and 14 specially related entities had net bought a combined 314.8 billion won ($275.4 million) worth of shares in KB Financial over the past seven years. As a result, BlackRock was holding some 25 million shares out of KB Financial’s total 415.8 million outstandi

Market March 10, 2021

The National Pension Service said Wednesday it would engage in voting for Posco Chairman and CEO Choi Jeong-woo’s new term as a Posco board member in a way that does not affect the result of the shareholders’ vote on Friday. The decision not to vote against Choi comes as a series of workplace accidents, the company‘s involvement in a coal-fired project and alleged ties to Myanmar‘s military coup piled pressure on Choi, who served as chief of the steel-to-chemicals congl

Market March 10, 2021

South Korea’s last coal power project in Gangwon Province is facing renewed scrutiny as civic activists called for a state audit against Korean financial institutions for allegedly overlooking and condoning risk factors in financing the private-led project, dubbed Samcheok Blue Power Plant.  The targets are seven financial companies, including the Korea Development Bank, the Industrial Bank of Korea and the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, according to Korea’s civi

Market March 9, 2021

South Korean companies have issued a combined 12.9 trillion won ($11.3 billion) worth of green, social and sustainability bonds from January to February, data showed Tuesday. In the first two months of 2021, social bonds accounted for nearly two-thirds of the total issuance of bonds aligned with ESG factors, followed by green bonds and sustainability bonds -- a hybrid of green and social -- according to data by the Korea Financial Investment Association. In February alone, Korean firms floate

Market March 9, 2021

Korean investors holding some $8 billion worth of stocks in US electric vehicle maker Tesla appear to be unnerved after its recent stock price fall. According to the latest data from the Korea Securities Depository, Tesla was Korea‘s favorite foreign stock, holding a combined $8.1 billion worth of shares as of March 2. This was followed by US tech giants Apple, Amazon and Alphabet, the holding company of Google. In the past two months, Korean investors net bought $1.36 billion worth of

Market March 8, 2021

South Korea‘s golf courses are carrying heftier price tags as investment destinations than ever, and their transactions are becoming more and more active, as the coronavirus pandemic since last year has opened doors to more golfing activities and investors are scrambling for more attractive options for their real asset investments, data showed Sunday. The total investment transaction volume of Korean golf facilities in 2020 reached an all-time-high, rising twofold year-on-year to 1.43 tri

Market March 7, 2021

South Korea‘s stock market narrowed down losses in the early morning session on Friday as retail trading has nearly offset lingering bond yield concerns in the United States. The Korea Exchange’s main board Kospi shed 0.6 percent to close at 3,026.26 points, as Kospi was down 2 percent in early morning trade. The development board Kosdaq inched down 0.3 percent in closing, reducing from 2 percent in the morning. Retail investors here continued to be active in trading. On Friday, l

Market March 5, 2021

Hong Kong-based private equity firm Affinity Equity Partners has been selected as the preferred bidder for the acquisition of South Korea’s online recruiting portal Jobkorea. According to sources Thursday, Affinity and Korean private equity house H&Q Korea will ink an agreement over the transaction of a 100 percent stake in the company roughly valued at nearly 900 billion won ($800 million). Affinity beat out private equity peers MBK Partners, CVC Capital Partners and TPG Capital As

Market March 4, 2021

South Korea has less potential to decarbonize autonomously than its Asian peers due to the insufficiency of its solar resources and seasonal variations in electricity demand, showed an analysis by Asia Investor Group on Climate Change on Thursday. Korea appears to require green energy imports to meet its decarbonization target to generate over 25 percent of new and renewable energy-powered electricity by 2034, from the current 7.4 percent, and to increase its new and renewable energy power gen

Market March 4, 2021