Booyoung Group, a leading Korean rental housing builder, on Thursday invited an African choir to the company’s headquarters in Seoul, vowing to support more educational programs for youths in African countries.The Choeur Africain des Jeunes sang a popular children’s song written during the Japanese imperial period in front of some 150 Booyoung employees who watched the performance, the company officials said.The Choeur Africain des Jeunes is a group composed of 31 members from eight African coun

Industry Aug. 17, 2014

T’way Air, a Korean budget carrier, launched an early-bird promotion for domestic and international flight tickets for October, the company said Friday.The campaign offers discounts of up to 82 percent on cheap flight tickets. Tickets for domestic flights to Jejudo Island, Daegu and Gwangju from Gimpo International Airport go on sale for two weeks starting Monday at 10 a.m. One-way fares will start at 24,900 won ($23.90), T’way officials said.As for international flights, the carrier is offering

Industry Aug. 8, 2014

A revised privacy law prohibiting all public institutions and companies from collecting citizens’ resident numbers is coming into effect on Thursday as planned, but concerns linger as to its effectiveness. Earlier this year, the government announced that it will ban firms from requesting resident registration numbers ― the most generally used form of identification here ― for commercial and financial transactions. Credit cards, banks and other financial institutions must also wipe resident numbe

Aug. 6, 2014

The number of dormant credit cards in South Korea dropped below the 10 million mark last month, marking the first time it has done so since 2005 when the Credit Finance Association began tracking the data.About 9.7 million credit cards issued by 20 banks and card companies had remained idle for more than a year. The figure was down more than half from the 23.5 million a year earlier, according to the CFA on Tuesday.CFA officials explained that the decline is due in part to the government’s home-

Aug. 5, 2014

South Korea will see limited effects from Argentina’s debt crisis, and the U.S. and Europe’s additional sanctions against Russia as Korean companies have relatively low financial exposure to the emerging markets, the Financial Supervisory Service said.“Domestic banks have been stably renewing their short-term debt, and market interest rates have been facing low volatility,” an FSS official said.The global financial markets have been in panic after the International Swaps and Derivatives Associat

Aug. 4, 2014

Woori Bank said Wednesday it would introduce a digital bankbook application next month to phase out conventional bankbooks. The digital bankbook smart application will be available for Android-based devices as of Aug. 1, while iOS users can download it from Aug. 11, according to Woori officials.Under the current banking system here, users must use either bankbooks or debit cards to withdraw and deposit cash at ATMs. But the new application will make the process easier by requiring only smartphon

July 30, 2014

Daewoo Engineering & Construction, a leading South Korean builder, achieved a better-than-expected 95.7 billion won ($92.9 million) in net earnings in the first half of this year, an 18 percent increase from the same period a year ago, the company said on Friday. Daewoo logged 222.5 billion won in operating profit and 4.53 trillion won in revenue, up 2.2 percent and 5.6 percent, respectively, from the same period last year. Daewoo officials attributed the net profit increase in the first half to

Industry July 25, 2014

GS Homeshopping, the country’s leading home shopping company, is preparing to make an offer to acquire a majority stake in the car rental firm KT Rental, a local daily said on Tuesday.Reports of GS’ intentions came about a month after KT Corp. publicly announced the sales of two nonmajor affiliates ― KT Rental and KT Capital ― as part of its efforts to regain financial soundness and focus on the ICT business. GS Homeshopping CEO Huh Tae-soo has reportedly been in talks with global investment ban

July 15, 2014