Kakao Pay’s Kospi debut likely to come in August: watchers

Kakao Pay, the payment services unit of mobile giant Kakao, could make its market debut in August, the same month its sister company KakaoBank goes public, industry watchers suggested Tuesday. The company received approval on its application for a preliminary qualification examination for listing from the Korea Exchange on Monday, also the same day KakaoBank, a banking arm of the messenger giant, made its August IPO official. After discussing the timeline with its lead underwriters Samsung Sec

June 29, 2021

Hybe shares plunge almost 8% after a block deal

Shares of Hybe, the South Korean entertainment agency behind the hugely popular boy band BTS, plummeted more than 7 percent on Tuesday after a major investor, STIC Investment, unloaded its holdings via a block deal. Before closing down 7.37 percent to 289,000 won ($256), Hybe’s shares dropped by as much as 8.17 percent to 286,500 won on Tuesday. South Korea’s leading private equity fund STIC Investment sold 2.86 million shares, or 7.57 percent of the total shares in Hybe, a regu

June 29, 2021

Banks' lending rates inch down in May

South Korean banks' lending rates edged down in May amid a slight decline in deposit rates, central bank data showed Tuesday. The average interest rate charged on new bank loans came to 2.72 percent in May, down 0.02 percentage point from the previous month, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The BOK cut the key interest rate to a record low of 0.5 percent in May last year after delivering an emergency rate cut of half a percentage point in March to cushion the impact

June 29, 2021

Self-employed's debts up 3.1% in 2019

The self-employed's debts grew 3.1 percent in 2019 from a year earlier as their income declined amid an economic slowdown, data showed Tuesday. Financial institutions' loans extended to the self-employed averaged 172 million won (US$151,800) as of end-2019, compared with 167 million won the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea. Self-employed people took out more loans to cover rising costs as they tackled a fall in sales amid an extended economic slowdown. Since last yea

June 29, 2021

Samsung Heavy to lease drill ship to Italy's Saipem

Samsung Heavy Industries Co. has signed a deal to lease its drill ship to Italian oilfield services company Saipem for two years, the shipbuilder said Tuesday. The deal to be effective from November 2021 to August 2023 has an option for Saipem to purchase the leased drill ship, it added. But the company did not reveal the value of the deal. The drill ship is one of two drill ships that Swiss-based offshore driller Transocean Ltd. relinquished without specifying the reason in September 2019.

June 29, 2021

LG's OLED TVs support Dolby Vision Gaming at 4K, 120Hz

LG Electronics Inc. said Tuesday its OLED TVs now support an advanced video processing technology for gamers at 4K resolution with 120Hz refresh rate as the South Korean tech giant tries to beef up its presence in the gaming community. Through a software update, LG said its 2021 OLED TV models, including the G1 and C1, are compatible with Dolby Vision Gaming at 4K, 120Hz, becoming the industry's first TV products to support the solution in such picture settings. Previously, LG's TV supported

June 29, 2021

S. Korea facing 216 trade barriers around globe: data

South Korea is currently facing 216 trade barriers from 28 countries, data showed Tuesday, amid the looming protectionism around the globe. The figure includes 11 additional trade barriers imposed against South Korea in the first half of 2021, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Of the additional regulations, anti-dumping tariffs accounted for eight and safeguard measures took up three. The steel and metal sectors were among major victims, taking up 1

June 29, 2021

Samsung SDS signs partnership with US software firm ServiceNow

Samsung SDS Co., an IT service unit of Samsung Group, on Tuesday said it has signed a partnership with US-based software firm ServiceNow Inc. to expand cloud-based businesses. Under the deal with ServiceNow, Samsung SDS will utilize its IT service management solutions to help enterprise customers' digital transformation efforts. The two also agreed to join forces to develop technologies in the field of artificial intelligence and natural language understanding to seek growth opportunities.

June 29, 2021

Kia to vaccinate its workers from late July

Kia Corp., South Korea's No. 2 automaker, will begin an in-house COVID-19 vaccination program for its workers next month as part of antivirus measures for its factories, company officials said Tuesday. Kia plans to start inoculating employees with Moderna shots at in-house clinics of its plants in Gwangmyeong, Hwaseong and Jeonju on July 30, a company spokesperson said. The automaker will accept reservations from its 23,000 employees working at production lines, the spokesperson said. Kia

June 29, 2021

SK Telecom teams up with Genesys to launch AI call centers

SK Telecom Co., South Korea's largest mobile carrier, said Tuesday it has teamed up with US call center technology company Genesys to launch a contact center service powered by artificial intelligence (AI). AI call centers have recently risen in popularity as they can reduce tasks handled by traditional call center agents by using speech recognition and natural language processing technology to respond to simple and repetitive user queries. SK Telecom said it has partnered with Genesys, which

June 29, 2021

Samsung unveils new smartwatch interface

Samsung Electronics Co. on Tuesday unveiled its new smartwatch interface that will run on the upcoming unified wearable operating system (OS) with Google as the South Korean tech giant eyes to expand its presence in the wearable device market. Samsung introduced One UI Watch at its virtual session of this year's Mobile World Congress, saying the new interface aims to deliver a more connected experience between the Galaxy Watch and smartphones. One UI Watch will be available for new OS jointl

June 29, 2021

Airlines urge govt. to expand travel bubble to individual tourists

South Korean airlines called on the government Tuesday to implement a travel bubble as early as possible and to expand it to individual overseas tourists. The request was made at a meeting between Vice Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Kim Jeong-base and tourism industry people, which was organized by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry. A travel bubble refers to a quarantine-free travel partnership between two or more cities or countries with similar levels of COVID-19 cases. South

June 29, 2021

Seoul stocks open lower on virus concerns

South Korean stocks opened lower Tuesday as concerns of new coronavirus variants weakened investors' appetite for risky assets. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 7.55 points, or 0.23 percent, to trade at 3,294.34 points as of 9:15 a.m. The KOSPI got off to a muted start, taking a cue from new travel bans against the new COVID-19 variants in many parts of the world. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics retreated 0.49 percent, while No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix added 0

June 29, 2021

KNJ Bio blends Eastern, Western medicine

HEALTH FUNCTIONAL FOOD KNJ Bio KNJ Bio is a local provider of health supplements that incorporate both Asian herbs and modern Western medicine. The firm was established in 1978 by Kim Nam-joo, a certified doctor of pharmacy in South Korea and a doctor of Asian medicine in China and the US. Since the company was founded, KNJ Bio has endeavored to introduce novel health supplement products by marrying natural substances with traditional medicinal ingredients. Using this approach, KNJ Bi

June 29, 2021

Posco E&C to start sales of the Sharp Gwangyang Bay Cent in July

Posco Engineering & Construction will start pre-sales of its premium The Sharp brand apartments in Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province, in July, the company said Monday. The construction firm said it will begin receiving orders for 727 units of The Sharp Gwangyang Bay Cent, an apartment complex comprising of five apartment buildings in Hwanggeum-dong in Gwangyang. The buildings are as high as 33 stories, according to the company. The available apartments range in size from 84 square meters

June 28, 2021

KakaoBank to raise up to W2.5tr in August IPO

KakaoBank, the country’s second internet-only lender, said on Monday that it would raise up to 2.5 trillion won ($2.2 million) in its initial public offering. The banking arm of mobile giant Kakao Corp. will offer a total of 65.45 million new shares at an indicative range between 33,000 won and 39,000 won per share through its upcoming debut on August 5, the IPO application filed with the Korea Exchange showed. The offering prices put the company’s market capitalization somewhere

June 28, 2021

Fiscal chief vows ‘complete’ economic recovery this year

Aiming for the complete recovery of the South Korean economy, the government will deploy a series of policies inducing domestic consumption and supporting pandemic-hit businesses and exporters in the second half, the Finance Ministry said Monday. “The direction of economic policy for the second half of 2021 was established with a focus on two goals -- complete economic recovery and a major structural transformation into a leading economy,” Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said while

June 28, 2021

S. Korea to hold a major global EV event in 2024

The Electric Vehicle Symposium and Exhibition will take place in South Korea in 2024, the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers announced Monday. EVS, an annual event thought of as the Olympic Games of electric vehicles, is organized by the World Electric Vehicle Association to provide a platform for discussion and exchanges among automakers and researchers concerning major trends in the industry and cutting-edge technologies. The 2024 meeting will be the 34th installment of the event, sinc

June 28, 2021

Spy agency conducts special examination against cyber attack

The National Intelligence Service is conducting a review of cyber terrorism preparedness on the country’s energy infrastructures including electricity, gas and water supply networks, the agency announced Monday. The measure comes after the recent cyber attacks in the United States that targeted the data of the energy infrastructures and demanded payment in cryptocurrency. The NIS has already looked into the nation’s control system of water purification plants with the Ministry of

June 28, 2021

KDB, K-Growth to hit W4tr target for New Deal funds

The Korea Development Bank and Korea Growth Investment Corp. (K-Growth) said Monday they had selected 12 external managers to create a fresh 750 billion-won ($664 million) fund by the end of 2021 to support South Korea’s New Deal policy. With the announcement, the two institutions approached their year-end fundraising target of a total of 4 trillion won in commmitments for the policy fund this year, out of the total 20 trillion-won target for 2021 to 2025, in the plan first unveiled in S

June 28, 2021