South Korea's top life insurer Samsung Life Insurance Co. said Thursday its third-quarter net profit plunged more than 50 percent from a year ago, but its bottom line rose 30 percent in the first nine months of the year. Consolidated net profit stood at 159.1 billion won ($134.7 million) in the July-September period, down 54 percent from a year earlier, Samsung Life Insurance said in a regulatory filing. Revenue increased 12.9 percent on-year to 9.09 trillion won in the three-month period, whi

The megahit Netflix series “Squid Game” depicts a dystopian world where 456 people compete in a series of extreme survival games on a remote island. The sole winner takes all the prize money, while everyone else bites the dust. In the real world, all the “Squid Game” deaths would be eligible for insurance coverage, according to a local insurance company. The question is whether those death benefits would differ depending on how the player died, it added. According to a

The chiefs of South Korea’s two main financial regulators -- the policymaking Financial Services Commission and the market watchdog Financial Supervisory Service -- have met with the heads of major insurance companies and banking groups here to discuss policy initiatives to support the growth of market players through deregulation, the two said Wednesday. “The rapid digital transformation of finance and the growth of online platform businesses are rapidly changing the nation’s

South Korean gaming firm Krafton has inked a deal to acquire 100 percent ownership of US video game developer Unknown Worlds Entertainment for $750 million, in the first takeover deal it has announced since the company went public in August, a filing showed Sunday. According to the disclosure filed with the Financial Supervisory Service, Krafton, a Tencent Holdings-backed company behind the battle-royale style PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds franchise, signed a sales and purchase agreement

Samsung Heavy Industries Co. said Thursday it will allot part of new shares to six Samsung Group affiliates, including Samsung Electronics Co. Samsung Heavy Industries, suffering from continued losses, plans to raise 1.28 trillion won ($1.1 billion) by selling 250 million common shares at 5,130 won per share to repay its debt and develop eco-friendly shipbuilding technologies. Of them, 50 million shares, or 20 percent, have been sold to the company's workers for 256.5 billion won. Later in

Fundraising activities via a company’s initial public offering rose sixfold by volume in South Korea‘s capital market during the first three quarters of this year over investors’ growing appetite for debutants on the stock market here, data showed Wednesday. The combined IPO proceeds of Korean companies, including special purpose acquisition companies, through the newly-issued shares between January and September came to 11.9 trillion won ($10.2 billion), up 478.3 percent fro

The family of late Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee plans to sell stakes in group affiliates worth 2 trillion won ($1.6 billion) to pay inheritance taxes, regulatory filings showed Saturday. Hong Ra-hee, the widow of the late business tycoon who died in October last year, plans to sell 19.9 million shares in Samsung Electronics Co., which were estimated at 1.4 trillion won as of Friday‘s closing price, according to the regulatory filing. The shares account for around 0.33 percent o

South Korea’s energy policy faces mounting uncertainties as two ministries appear to hold different views over liquefied natural gas, or LNG. According to industry sources Friday, the Environment Ministry is mulling to exclude LNG from its green classification system set for launch later this year. The classification system aims to evaluate the environmental sustainability of industries and judge which one is green and promote public and private investments. Industries excluded from

It has been a record year for the South Korean initial public offering market as companies succeeding in local listings have fetched more than a combined 16 trillion won ($13.8 billion) in proceeds, according to data compiled by the sole bourse operator here Sunday. The accumulated IPO proceeds of 73 firms listed this year on the domestic main board and tech-heavy bourse as of Friday came to 16.01 trillion won, the Korea Exchange data showed. The figure not only beat those of the total annual

In 2014, just 10 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, the capital of war-torn Iraq, hundreds of Hanwha Engineering & Construction workers were toiling away to build a new city worth $10.1 billion to provide new homes for some 600,000 Iraqis. Far away from home and exhausted by the desert heat, the workers craved fresh flatfish sashimi, a cheap dish in South Korea but impossible to find in Iraq. When Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn heard the news, he ordered chefs to prepare flatfish sas

Shares of Samsung Group’s major units lost ground just as its de facto leader Lee Jae-yong was released on parole Friday, seven months after being return to prison for bribery involving former President Park Geun-hye. Shares of Samsung Electronics, the group’s flagship company and world’s largest memory chip maker, closed at 74,400 won ($63.66), down 3.38 percent from the previous session’s close. The stock began trading at 1.43 percent lower and further dropped to hit i

Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Co. said Thursday its earnings rose more than 16 percent in the second quarter of the year from a year earlier. Net income came to 312.6 billion won ($270 million) in the April-June period, up 16.1 percent from a year earlier, the leading non-life insurer said in a regulatory filing. Operating income stood at 452.3 billion won in the three-month period, up 16.6 percent from a year earlier. In the first half of the year, the company's net profit soared nearl

Krafton has priced its initial public offering at 498,000 won ($434.5) a share, at the top end of its indicative price range of 400,000-498,000 won, the South Korean game maker said in a regulatory filing Thursday. The game developer behind shooting game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds wrapped up its book-building process Tuesday. While institutional investors placed their bids to obtain new shares for the IPO, a total of 621 domestic and overseas institutions participated. Competition amo

KakaoBank, South Korea’s largest internet-only bank, set a record Thursday in the initial public offering market history here, having attracted keen attention from investors both at home and abroad ahead of its market debut on the country’s main board Kospi next month. The banking arm of mobile giant Kakao wrapped up its book-building process Wednesday. While institutional investors placed their bids to obtain new shares for the IPO, a total of 1,667 domestic and offshore instituti

Major South Korean insurers saw their mortgage loans grow at a fast clip over the past year on rising demand, industry data showed Tuesday. Mortgage lending by top life insurer Samsung Life Insurance surged 17.2 percent on-year to 21.3 trillion won ($18.6 billion) at the end of March this year. In the first quarter of the year alone, its home-backed loans surged by more than 1 trillion won. No. 2 industry player Hanwha Life Insurance saw its mortgage loans jump 17.3 percent on-year to 4.9 tril