Better Life for All

Woori Financial wins approval for Tongyang, ABL Life acquisition

Woori Financial Group Inc., South Korea’s fourth-largest financial services provider, has received conditional approval from the country&rsquo...

Debt financing Kookmin Bank raises $700 mn in forex bonds amid strong demand

Kookmin Bank, a unit of KB Financial Group, raised $700 million in foreign exchange bonds on Tuesday, signaling a recovery in investor sentiment tow...

Mergers & Acquisitions Kyobo Life poised to buy Japan’s SBI Group-owned savings bank

Kyobo Life Insurance Co. is in the final stages of negotiation with Japanese financial group SBI Holdings Inc. to buy about a 50% stake in SBI Savin...

Travel & Leisure Korean hotels bask in rising foreign visitors; travel agencies in trouble

Hotels in South Korea are booming thanks to a surge in foreign visitors on a weaker won currency, while domestic travel agencies are suffering from ...

Private equity MBK sees better exit landscape in 2025, bets on governance reform

MBK Partners sees a recovery in the exit environment in 2025 and seeks to capitalize on the opportunities emerging from corporate governance reform ...

Real estate Warburg Pincus-Wide Creek Asset JV picks up 2nd Korean logistics asset

US private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC and South Korean real estate manager Wide Creek Asset Management Co. are building a logistics center for l...

Mergers & Acquisitions Meritz drops bid for troubled MG Non-Life Insurance; Liquidation looms

Meritz Financial Group Inc., South Korea’s second-most valuable financial holding firm, has dropped its bid to acquire financial distressed MG...

Pension funds S.Korea’s pension fund NPS to overhaul alternative investment strategy

The National Pension Service (NPS), South Korea’s state-run pension fund and the country’s largest institutional investor, plans to intr...

Private equity Affinity, GIC sell out of Kyobo Life; Chairman Shin seeks holding firm, M&A

Affinity Equity Partners and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC have sold their entire stake in Kyobo Life Insurance Co., exiting from thei...

Private equity Kyobo Life’s Shin in talks with Affinity, GIC over exits below purchase price

Kyobo Life Insurance Co., South Korea’s third-largest life insurer, is in talks with some of its financial investors (FIs) to help them exit f...

Regulations S.Korea needs to allow short-selling for all listed stocks: FSS chief

Lee Bok-hyun, governor of South Korea’s top financial watchdog body, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), said on Thursday that there shou...

Corporate restructuring Samsung Life, Samsung Fire sell $193 mn in Samsung Electronics shares

Samsung Life Insurance Co., South Korea’s largest life insurer, and Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Co., the country’s No. 1 non-lif...

Corporate restructuring Samsung Life mulls putting Samsung Fire under its wing as subsidiary

Samsung Life Insurance Co., South Korea’s largest life insurer, is considering bringing Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Co., the country&r...

E-commerce S.Korea's dawn delivery pioneer Kurly sells luxury goods to uplift profit

Kurly Inc., South Korea's dawn delivery service market pioneer, has invited a third-party online retailer to sell luxury goods on its platform to bo...

Automobiles Hyundai, BAIC to inject $1.1 bn in China joint venture  

Hyundai Motor Co. and its Chinese partner Beijing Motor Corp. (BAIC) will jointly invest $1.1 billion in their joint venture, which produces and sel...

Mergers & Acquisitions Hanwha Life acquires US securities firm Velocity

South Korea's Hanwha Life Insurance said on Wednesday it signed a stock purchase agreement (SPA) to acquire a 75% stake in Velocity Clearing LLC, ...

Artificial intelligence SK Telecom unveils AI personal agent Aster for global users

SK Telecom Co. on Tuesday unveiled an AI-driven personal assistant Aster (A*) that understands users' intentions and goes beyond answering simple qu...

Earnings HYBE Q3 profit down; foresees better 2025 after BTS’ military discharges

HYBE Co., the K-pop behemoth behind BTS, suffered a double-digit profit fall in the third quarter amid an ongoing feud with Min Hee-jin, the creativ...

Earnings Samsung’s memory business fares better in Q3; more HBM sales ahead 

Samsung Electronics Co. reported weaker-than-expected operating profit in its chip business in the third quarter but expects a rise in sales of its ...

Venture capital South Korean VCs in search of better returns abroad

South Korean venture capitalists’ appetite for foreign entrepreneurs shows no sign of waning as they continue to look for better returns overs...

Shipping & Shipbuilding HD Hyundai to build int'l standards for carbon emissions

South Korea's HD Hyundai Marine Solution Co. said on Wednesday that it signed a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Agreement with HD Hyundai Samho and the ...

Insurance DB Insurance outshines domestic rivals in global business

DB Insurance Co. raked in the biggest profits from overseas operations among South Korean insurance companies in the first half of this year, leadin...

Electronics LG NOVA hosts Innovation Festival in US

LG Electronics Inc. 's North American Innovation Center (LG NOVA) said on Monday that it held an Innovation Festival last Wednesday and Thursday at ...

Korean chipmakers Samsung strives to prevent musculoskeletal disorders in the workplace

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest memory chipmaker, is striving to prevent musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in its workplace to imp...

Mergers & Acquisitions Woori signs $1.16 bn deal to acquire Tongyang, ABL Life from China’s Dajia

Woori Financial Group Inc., South Korea’s fourth-largest financial services provider, said on Wednesday it has signed a deal to acquire Tongya...

Automobiles Hyundai Mobis’ sustainability pledge for a better tomorrow  

Hyundai Mobis Co.'s efforts to build a better tomorrow don't stop at developing future mobility technologies like autonomous driving, connectivity a...

Artificial intelligence LG unveils Korea’s 1st open source AI to take on Meta, Google

LG Group, South Korea’s fourth-biggest conglomerate, on Wednesday introduced the country’s first open-sourced artificial intelligence la...

Electronics LG Elec opens LG Labs experience pop-up zone

LG Electronics Inc. announced on Wednesday that it will operate the "Wow Life's Good Lab" pop-up zone at Ground 220 in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, until...

Artificial intelligence Spear Korea to acquire AI medical firm Life Semantics

South Korea's aerospace materials company Spear Korea will acquire artificial intelligence (AI) medical firm Life Semantics Co. Life Semantics ...

Bio & Pharma Huonslab eyes speedy anticancer drug delivery with new patent

South Korean biotech Huons Global Co. said on Tuesday that its research and development unit Huonslab has issued a domestic patent claiming a techno...