Lawmaker says people have different ‘starting lines’ in life according to parents’ wealth

Riiid, a South Korean artificial intelligence-based education tech company, has acquired Langoo, the Japanese distributor of its service, in an effort to expand its business in the world’s third-largest economy, the company said Saturday. The acquisition is coming less than five months after it secured $175 million in series D funding solely raised from Japan’s Softbank’s Vision Fund 2, and is p...

South Korean financial technology unicorn Viva Republica said Friday it has signed a deal to acquire a controlling 60 percent stake in mobility firm VCNC, known for premium ride-hailing app Tada, in its new rights offering. Viva Republica, which offers various financial services under its flagship Toss brand, said the takeover is aimed at expanding its financial services business and overhauling...

South Korea said Thursday it has sold about $1.3 billion worth of foreign exchange stabilization bonds at the second-lowest ever rates amid solid demand. The government sold US dollar-denominated bonds worth $500 million with a maturity of 10 years and five-year euro-denominated debts worth $700 million, according to the finance ministry. The dollar bonds carry a yield of 1.769 percent, or 25 b...

South Korean activist fund Korea Corporate Governance Improvement has bought 100 billion won ($84 million) in exchangeable bonds issued by weapon system developer LIG Nex1, a filing showed Wednesday. The investment is aimed at improving LIG Nex1’s performance under the criteria of environmental, social and governance responsibility and giving birth to LIG Nex1’s new line of business, according t...

Shinhan Financial Group said Wednesday it has decided to invest 18 billion won ($15.1 million) into three startups offering cutting-edge technologies as part of its bigger plan to boost the group’s digital capabilities. Three startups that attracted the funding include Galaxy Corp. which owns intellectual property rights to virtual characters for metaverse platforms as well as Xinapse, an artifi...

Toss Bank, South Korea’s third internet-only bank, commenced full operations on Tuesday, highlighting its user-friendly financial services that differentiate itself from rivals quickly expanding their presence in the emerging market. Under the slogan of “New Banking, New Bank,” the online-only lender showcased its convenient deposit banking and loan service fit for as many users as possible, inc...

South Korea-based private equity firm Hahn & Co. is poised to cash in on 306.6 billion won ($258.1 million) from an initial public offering of a fully-owned secondhand car retailer K Car on Wednesday, according to a prospectus Tuesday. The deal is aimed at floating Hahn & Co.’s 25.5 percent stake, or 12.3 million shares, in K Car, plus 1.2 million new shares. The IPO price of K Car, which is val...

Amid the rapid digital transformation brought on by the COVID-19 era, local banks have increasingly turned their backs on brick-and-mortar branches and automated teller machines, data showed Wednesday. The number of physical bank branches stood at 6,326 as of the end of June, down 10.9 percent from the end of 2016, when the figure came in at 7,101, according to data from the market watchdog Fina...

CJ Olive Young looks for IPO underwriter, Hyundai Engineering submits document to KRX

South Korean investors’ focus could be on multitenant commercial properties as they have greater room for improvement than single-tenant properties under their traditional low-risk strategy amid prospects for post-pandemic uncertainties, a research paper showed Monday. Such assets can help Korean outbound investors seek extra income from investment and stay resilient from economic uncertainties ...

Over half of young people living in Seoul say they couldn’t buy a home without the help of their parents, data showed Friday. According to a survey conducted by the Seoul Institute, a think tank under the Seoul Metropolitan Government, 53 percent out of 676 Seoul citizens ranging in age from 18 to 34 said that it would be impossible to purchase a house without financial support from their parent...

The Bank of Korea (BOK) said Thursday its net selling and buying of the US dollar remained on par in the second quarter as part of its efforts to help ease fluctuations in the local currency market. In the first quarter, the BOK sold a net $103 million to stabilize the Korean currency's movement, compared with a net purchase of $11.5 billion three months earlier. The central bank began releasin...

More homegrown late-stage venture capital investing is crucial to spurring South Korean startups to be able to scale up and innovative for job creation and economic development, which will ultimately lead to a windfall for investors, head of Seoul-based unicorn Kurly said Thursday. “Once a startup achieves a scale-up at a certain point, the value it can create is immense,” Sophie Kim, founder an...

Upbit, South Korea’s first cryptocurrency exchange to receive a green light from regulators, is gearing up to verify its massive number of users to fulfill the next important duty under the anti-money laundry act. Industry watchers believe Upbit’s user verification could take as long as three months due to its massive user base of 8.3 million and a public ID verification system operated by the M...