small- and medium-sized manufacturing companies

Corporate strategy Hankook & Company to set up CVC with $11 mn in funding

Hankook & Company Co., the holding company of Hankook Tire & Technology Co., announced Thursday a plan to launch a wholly owned corporate ve...

Korean games NCSOFT invests in US game startup emptyvessel

NCSOFT Corp. has made an equity investment in emptyvessel, a US indie games studio, as part of efforts to expand into the first-person shooter genre...

Bio & Pharma Samsung Biologics bags $514 mn CMO contract from US pharma

Samsung Biologics Co., the world’s largest contract manufacturing organization (CMO), said on Monday it has secured a $5.14 million order from...

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...

Batteries POSCO Future M to make spherical graphite as it cuts dependence on China

POSCO Future M Co., South Korea’s leading battery materials maker, is set to manufacture spherical graphite – a critical material for ba...

Tech, Media & Telecom LG CNS breaks into US smart city market

LG CNS Co., the information technology service unit of South Korea’s LG Group, has won its first public-sector smart city contracts in the US,...

Corporate strategy Orion behind original Choco Pie to invest $580 million in new plants

Orion Corp., a South Korean confectionery and snack manufacturer, will inject 830 billion won ($580 million) over three years to expand snack manufa...

Aerospace & Defense South Korean defense industry thriving on strong overseas demand

The South Korean defense industry's current heyday is expected to continue for a while as global demand for Korean-made weapons and combat systems h...

E-commerce Naver mulls acquiring about a 10% stake in Kurly

Naver Corp. is considering taking over a stake in Kurly Inc. to become the largest shareholder in the South Korean dawn delivery service market pion...

Beauty & Cosmetics Korea launches $27 mn fund to invest in K-beauty startups

South Korea’s Ministry of SMEs and Startups on Thursday announced the launch of a 40 billion won ($27 million) fund to invest in Korean beauty...

K-pop KAIST launches Korean rapper G-Dragon’s music into space

The Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) has launched the music and iris image of G-Dragon, a Korean rapper and singer-songw...

Automobiles Kia to build North America-targeted electric pickup model

Kia Corp., South Korea’s second-largest carmaker, will build an electric pickup model tailored for North America to enter the world’s la...

Aerospace & Defense Hanwha Aerospace slashes planned rights offering size to $1.6 billion

Hanwha Aerospace Co., a leading South Korean defense company, said on Tuesday it plans to slash the size of its proposed rights offering to 2.3 tril...

Asset management Stay liquid, be selective, look outside US tech, says TCW CEO

Global financial markets are facing rising volatility and uncertainty this year as the US stock market rally led by Big Tech is losing steam amid co...

Leadership & Management Naver to build sovereign AI, says founder Lee after return

South Korea’s No. 1 internet portal operator Naver Corp. will build strong sovereign artificial intelligence to fight the growing dominance of...

Energy Alaska governor seeks Korean partners for $44 bn LNG project

Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy arrived in South Korea on Monday to hold a series of one-on-one meetings with top executives from Korean energy and st...

Pension funds S.Korea’s NPS to double pension fund size by 2050, hike risky assets

South Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS) is projected to nearly double its fund size to 3,500 trillion won ($2.38 trillion) by 2050, follo...

Pension funds Korea’s pension fund NPS rules out investing in MBK’s hostile M&A deals

South Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS) said on Monday it will not participate in investments related to hostile mergers and acquisitions...

Energy HD Hyundai, TerraPower to commercialize next-gen SMR

South Korea’s largest shipbuilder, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., is deepening its partnership with TerraPower LLC, the US nuclear venture f...

Private equity South Korea emerges as private equity firms’ global hub

New York-based Apollo Global Management and London-based Intermediate Capital Group (ICG) have joined the ranks of global private equity firms that ...

Hydrogen economy Hyundai Motor to build fuel cell plant in South Korea

Hyundai Motor Co. will build a local fuel cell plant in South Korea, accelerating its bid to create an entire hydrogen fuel cell value chain in line...

Logistics LX Pantos acquires logistics center near Atlanta for $120 mn

LX Pantos Co., a logistics arm of LX International Corp., announced on Tuesday it has acquired a logistics center near Atlanta in Dalton, Georgia fo...

Economy Korea to create new visa for high-quality foreign talent

South Korea said on Wednesday it plans to create a new visa to attract high-level foreign talent for advanced industries such as artificial intellig...

Mergers & Acquisitions Gaming company NXC looks to unload stroller maker Stokke

NXC Corp., the holding company of South Korea’s Nexon Games Co., is looking to unload Stokke AS, a premium baby stroller brand, for around 700...

Machinery Hyundai Rotem inks $1.5 bn Morocco train supply deal

South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem Co. said on Wednesday it has won a 2.2 trillion won ($1.5 billion) train order from Morocco, the biggest single de...

Electronics LG Electronics hits record sales in India, paving way for 2025 IPO

LG Electronics Inc. posted its largest-ever sales in India in 2024, providing a boost to the planned initial public offering of its Indian unit this...

Corporate bonds One-third of Korean petrochem bonds incur valuation losses

South Korean institutional investors, including banks, insurers and securities companies, have yet to fully benefit from recent declines in bond yie...

Corporate bonds S.Korea’s corporate bond market cools amid poor earnings

Investors’ appetite for corporate debts sold by South Korea’s petrochemical, retail and battery companies has waned this month amid grim...

Private equity EQT targets healthcare, technology, business service providers in Korea

EQT, the largest private equity firm in Europe, is setting its sights on healthcare, technology companies and business service providers in South Ko...

Corporate bonds LG companies flock to debt, equity markets to raise $2.8 billion

Companies under South Korea’s fourth-largest conglomerate LG Group scrambled to sell shares and bonds to raise 4 trillion won ($2.8 billion) e...