Top Korean travel startup Yanolja taps 2021 IPO managers

South Korea’s largest travel platform Yanolja has mandated Mirae Asset Daewoo Co. and Samsung Securities Co. to handle its initial public offe...

S. Korean COVID-19 test kit maker eyes listing next year

SD Bio Sensor, Inc., a South Korea-based manufacturer of COVID-19 test kits, is pushing to go public early next year, drawing market attention as a st...

Korean won off 29-month high on government warning

The South Korean won suffered its biggest daily loss in five months against the dollar on Nov. 19, after Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki stepped up warni...

Pandemics beat crime as S.Koreans’ top social threat

Pandemics and economic difficulty are cited as the biggest social risk factors by South Koreans, displacing crime and national security, which topped ...

Carpenters brew tea from 150-year-old Korean pine trees

GANGNEUNG, Gangwon Province -- Gangneung, on the coast east of Seoul, is famously known as a coffee destination — but there's actually another d...

NPS set to up pressure on spicy Korean ramen exporter

The National Pension Service has signaled a possible exercise of shareholder rights against South Korea’s No. 3 instant noodle maker Samyang Foo...

PE secondaries top Korean LPs' global PE funds list

Secondary private equity deals were picked as the preferred global PE investment of South Korea’s top asset owners, followed by co-investments a...

Korean steel majors positioned as 2021 market darlings

Corporate earnings generally come in line with estimates from market analysts, who closely monitor industry conditions. But this year, one sector anal...

Korean LPs favor direct lending for private debt investment

More than half of South Korea’s key asset owners, led by the National Pension Service, are inclined to expand overseas private debt investment i...

Anchor Equity, TPG invest $500 mn in Korean mobile banking app

Hong Kong-based Anchor Equity Partners has agreed to invest 250 billion won ($226 million) to buy new shares in South Korea’s KakaoBank, shortly...

Investors eye Goldilocks stock market in 2021; Biden, pandemic negatives

South Korea’s stock markets are expected to continue their uptrend into next year, fueled by aggressive foreign buying on the back of strong cor...

Korean Air to buy rival Asiana in $1.6 bn deal to emerge as world’s 7th airline

Korean Air Lines Co. will spend 1.8 trillion won ($1.6 billion) to own a majority stake in beleaguered local rival Asiana Airlines Inc., in a deal t...

Amazon, SK Telecom join hands in Korea e-commerce market

SK Telecom Co. and online retail giant Amazon.com have agreed to team up in South Korea’s e-commerce market, in a deal that could lead to cross-...

Korean Air bid to acquire Asiana faces challenges, activist opposition

The owner of Korean Air Lines Co.’s reported bid to acquire local rival Asiana Airlines Inc. faces several hurdles, including painful job cuts, ...

Korean Air, Asiana may merge MRO businesses after spin-off

South Korea’s two largest airliners, Korean Air Lines Co. and Asiana Airlines Inc., may combine their airplane repair and maintenance businesses...

Parent of Korean Air seeks to buy rival Asiana Airlines

Hanjin Group, which owns South Korea’s flag-carrier Korean Air Lines Co., is seeking to buy local rival Asiana Airlines Inc., signaling a mega d...

S. Korea's shipping firms grapple with container shortages

Growing shipping volumes and surging sea freight rates are wreaking havoc on South Korea's shipping companies, reeling from a dire shortage of contain...

Korean startup to rival Dolby in unconquered 3D audio market

Gaudio Lab Inc., backed by SoftBank Ventures, is throwing down the gauntlet to Dolby Laboratories for the three-dimensional (3D) audio market, for whi...

S. Korean stock market posts record-high market cap; SK biopharm added to MSCI

South Korea's benchmark Kospi reached a two-year high closing at 2485.87 points on Nov. 11, posting an eight-session winning streak driven by imminent...

Korean teachers' fund names ex-education minister as CEO

South Korea’s Ministry of Education has chosen Kim Sang-gon, formerly deputy prime minister and education minister, as the new chief executive f...

Korean shipbuilding industry rebounds from near bottom

South Korea’s shipbuilding industry is slowly emerging from its rocky cycle of ups and down in recent years, thanks to a recovery in the global ...

South Korean investors ramp up US stock purchases

South Korean investors ramped up overseas stock purchases amid looming uncertainty surrounding the US Presidential Election during the first week of N...

Elecfoil maker IMM Tech aims Korean listing

Iljin Materials Co., a South Korean battery materials maker, is planning to list its Malaysia-based subsidiary IMM Technology on South Korea’s b...

Korean firms face triple whammy of soaring KRW, freight rates, Biden

South Korea’s major companies are facing a triple whammy of challenges — a stronger Korean currency, soaring seaborne and air freight rate...

Korean cinema chain foregoes IPO plans due to COVID-19

Megabox JoongAng Co., the third-largest cinema chain in South Korea, will forego plans to go public owing to the global coronavirus crisis that has de...

Largest domestic carrier Korean Air posts Q3 surplus; peers swing negative

South Korea’s flag carrier Korean Air Lines Co. has posted an operating profit for two straight quarters thanks to robust cargo operations keepi...

Will Korean audiences return to movie theaters?

Anyone connected with South Korea's film exhibition industry has good reason to be feeling depressed these days. Box office returns in September were ...

Korean LPs to boost protection against unforeseen events

The prolonged coronavirus era is pushing South Korean asset owners, including the Teachers’ Pension and insurance firms, to tighten contracts fo...

Korean fried chicken brand draws over 1,000 investors in bookbuilding

Kyochon F&B, South Korea’s No. 1 fried chicken franchise operator, wrapped up a successful bookbuilding for institutional investors with bid...

Korean pension funds’ CIOs look to diversify GP pool

South Korean pension funds are seeking to diversify their pool of alternative asset managers to broaden real estate- and developed markets-focused por...