K-beauty boom propels APR ahead of LG H&H, closing gap with AmorePacific

APR Co., South Korea's fast-growing beauty company, has outpaced the country's second-largest cosmetics firm LG H&H Co. in terms of market capit...

IMM joins $600 mn fund for K-beauty unicorn Goodai Global in M&A drive

IMM Private Equity and five other South Korean private equity firms are set to invest a total of 800 billion won ($600 million) in Goodai Global Inc...

CJ ENM sets up Korea’s 1st Middle East entertainment unit in Saudi Arabia

CJ ENM Co., South Korea’s largest film studio and distributor, has established a subsidiary in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – the first Middle E...

GM CEO Mary Barra quells Korea exit talk amid mounting auto tariff pressures

US auto giant General Motors Co. is regarding its South Korean factories as central to its global supply chain, particularly for compact SUVs and el...

Jennie, J-Hope, Jin sweep Spotify’s global K-pop rankings for mid-2025

K-pop icons Jennie of Blackpink and BTS members Jin and J-Hope have taken over Spotify’s mid-year 2025 Global Impact List, claiming the majori...

Korean budget carriers in the red as Japan travel slows, fare war intensifies

South Korea’s low-cost carriers (LCCs) are racking up losses as slowing growth in travel, particularly to Japan, fueled price wars to fill exc...

K-beauty brands shine among Amazon’s 2025 Prime Day bestsellers

Cosmetics and beauty devices made by South Korean companies dominated Amazon’s biggest summer shopping event this year, Prime Day, underscorin...

Glass Skin boom: Why Seoul’s interactive beauty clinics are hottest stop for foreign tourists

On a recent morning in Seoul’s hip Seongsu neighborhood, a line of eager foreign tourists snaked around the corner of CJ Olive Young Corp.&rsq...

Blackpink’s Jump tops Spotify Global Chart, sets K-Pop record

With their latest digital single Jump, Blackpink has become the first – and so far only – South Korean act to top Spotify’s Global...

IMM PE pitches A’pieu sale in breakup of struggling Able C&C

IMM Private Equity Inc. is pursuing a separate sale of A’pieu, a color makeup brand under Able C&C Co., as the Seoul-based private equity ...

Yes, it’s K-beauty: Strong buying appetite for makeup brands even before they're up for sale

In South Korea’s M&A landscape, beauty companies are no longer waiting to put themselves on the market. They’re being courted before...

Maru SF to open in Silicon Valley in November as Korean startup gateway

Maru SF, a startup campus and networking hub operated by the Asan Nanum Foundation, will open in Silicon Valley this November, marking the organizat...

Hanwha-owned burger chain Five Guys Korea up for sale two years after launch

South Korea’s Hanwha Group is seeking to sell the Korean operations of US premium burger chain Five Guys, two years after the brand’s hi...

Vietnam’s top leader to make 1st South Korea visit in 11 years

To Lam, general secretary of Vietnam’s Communist Party and the country’s de facto ruling leader, is expected to make a state visit to So...

Test case looms for Korea’s revised Commercial Act as VIP Asset challenges Lotte Rental’s rights issue to Affinity

Lotte Rental Co., South Korea’s No. 1 car rental and leasing company, is facing a backlash from a key minority shareholder over its planned ri...

K-beauty contract manufacturers see record Q2 profits; rally likely to continue

South Korea’s major original design manufacturers (ODMs) for cosmetics, led by Cosmax Inc. and Kolmar Korea Co., are estimated to have posted ...

At home, K-convenience stores battle stagnation; abroad they're powerful K-food ambassadors

In the bustling backstreets of Ulaanbaatar, shoppers file out of a CU convenience store with instant tteokbokki, or simmered Korean rice cake, packs...

Deal graveyard: S.Korean F&B franchise sales left without takers

Korean food is making waves globally, but back home, the story is different for food and beverage franchise operators. Franchisors in South Korea ar...

K-beauty craze sends Olive Young online sales to new heights

CJ Olive Young Corp., South Korea’s top beauty store chain, is another beneficiary of the global K-beauty surge, with its online cosmetics sal...

LG links up with Chinese rivals for budget appliance supremacy

LG Electronics Inc. has turned its rivals into allies in an unlikely pact to win the budget appliance war and ward off Chinese competitors rapidly e...

POSCO to supply HIC-resistant steel for Aramco’s Fadhili gas plant

POSCO, South Korea’s largest steelmaker, will supply hydrogen-induced cracking (HIC)-resistant steel to Saudi Arabian Oil Co., or Aramco, for ...

South Korean airlines bank on China routes for profit recovery

South Korean airlines are ramping up international routes, particularly to China, Japan and Southeast Asian countries, in a bid to boost profitabili...

Hyundai premieres IONIQ 6 N: Latest motorsport DNA for electric age

In a dramatic showing on the famed hill climb of West Sussex, Hyundai Motor Co. on Thursday debuted the IONIQ 6 N, its second high-performance elect...

IMM Credit closes $700 mn blind credit fund backed by NPS

IMM Credit & Solutions Inc. (ICS), the private credit unit of South Korea’s major investment firm IMM Holdings Inc., has raised nearly 1 t...

Rap icon Cardi B joins K-beauty’s celebrity fan club with BB cream

Cardi B, the Grammy-winning rapper, has joined the growing list of celebrities spotlighting Korean beauty products, fueling a new wave of global ent...

POSCO sells Chinese stainless steel JV to Chinese rival for $300 mn

POSCO, South Korea’s largest steelmaker, has sold Zhangjiagang Pohang Stainless Steel (PZSS), its loss-generating stainless steel joint ventur...

Hahn & Co. to award bonus shares to Namyang staff, retires $7.1 mn in shares

Seoul-based private equity firm Hahn & Co. will award employees of Namyang Dairy Products Co., a South Korean dairy product producer, 1.6 billio...

Saudi Crown Prince bin Salman courts Korean AI startups as Riyadh, Abu Dhabi vie to build tech hubs

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the Middle East was a land of opportunity for many South Korean construction workers, who labored there under the scorc...

K Shipbuilding up for sale as Korean shipyards ride new boom

K Shipbuilding Co., a mid-tier South Korean shipbuilder, will be put on the market this month after a strong turnaround. The deal, estimated at 500 ...

Samsung to buy US health tech firm Xealth in digital health push

Samsung Electronics Co. will acquire Xealth, a US-based healthcare platform provider, as it steps up efforts to foster non-semiconductor businesses ...