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...

LG launches ChatExaone AI beta service, available soon for enterprise use

South Korea’s fourth-largest conglomerate LG Group has made its artificial intelligence chatbot, ChatExaone, available to external users, sign...

Olive Young, a must-stop for foreign visitors to South Korea

For many foreign visitors to South Korea, a trip to the beauty retailer Olive Young is as essential as sampling kimchi or touring Gyeongbokgung Pala...

MBK, Mirae Asset to force CJ CGV to give up overseas cinema assets

MBK Partners Ltd. and Mirae Asset Securities Co. are set to force South Korea’s top multiplex cinema chain CJ CGV Co. to surrender control of ...

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...

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...

With waning MZ interest, is heyday over for S.Korea’s golf apparel market?

South Korea’s once-dominant golf apparel market, the largest in the world at its peak, is rapidly losing steam, as sales tumble and brands scr...

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...

South Korea’s Lee completes cabinet lineup with IT executive, lawmaker

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has tapped an information technology firm executive as culture minister and a ruling party lawmaker as land min...

Hyundai Glovis charts new waters with world’s first AI-driven self-sailing car carrier fleet

South Korea’s Hyundai Glovis Co. is poised to become the world’s first shipping company to deploy artificial intelligence-based autonomo...

Allianz-backed Koh Young’s brain surgery robot set for US debut by end-August

Koh Young Technology Inc., a South Korean developer of 3D optical inspection devices used in electronics manufacturing, is set to install its brain ...

Hanwha acquires Indonesian bank, first foreign banking venture by Korean insurer

Hanwha Life Insurance Co. has become the first South Korean insurance firm to advance into the overseas banking sector by securing a controlling sta...

JKL Partners to acquire $150 mn cult-favorite bagel chain London Bagel

JKL Partners Inc., a Seoul-based private equity firm, is set to acquire London Bagel Museum, a growing sensation in South Korea’s booming prem...

S.Korea’s leading ERP player Douzone Bizon up for sale; EQT, others in talks

Douzone Bizon Co., South Korea’s leading homegrown enterprise software firm and the country’s No. 2 player in the enterprise resource pl...

GEPS taps former KB Asset chief risk officer as new CIO

South Korea’s Government Employees Pension Service (GEPS) on Wednesday appointed Sohn Young-jin, former head of risk management at KB Asset Ma...

Growth equity portfolio largely shielded from policy headwinds: Summit

Growth equity investments have remained largely stable in the face of recent policy shifts, with key sectors like technology and healthcare avoiding...

Calls grow for stronger LP oversight in national strategic asset M&As

MBK Partners’ takeover attempt of Korea Zinc Inc. has exposed the vulnerability of national strategic assets to private equity ownership, posi...

Partners Group sees infrastructure secondaries quadrupling to $60 bn

Infrastructure secondaries are gaining momentum as the infrastructure sector attracts investors seeking stable and predictable returns amid heighten...

MBK-invested Homeplus looks for new owner as M&A emerges as option

South Korea’s leading hypermarket chain Homeplus Co. is once again up for sale, a decade after private equity firm MBK Partners Ltd. took it p...

Cushman & Wakefield, Avison Young to lead Orange Center sale in Seoul

Cushman & Wakefield and Avison Young have been appointed to oversee the sale of Orange Center, a prime office tower in Seoul’s central bus...

LG Energy, Samsung SDI to build 1st US LFP battery plants with GM

In a pivotal shift for the North American electric vehicle battery landscape, South Korea’s two leading battery makers – LG Energy Solut...

Shinsegae, Ascent Equity Partners weigh acquisition of C&C International

South Korean retail giant Shinsegae Group is seeking to acquire local color cosmetics manufacturer C&C International Co. in partnership with pri...

Google partners with Samsung, Gentle Monster for new smart glasses

SILICON VALLEY – Google LLC is making a renewed push into the smart glasses market in partnership with South Korea’s Samsung Electronics...

NPS boosts allocation to direct lending, secondaries

The National Pension Service (NPS), the world’s third-largest pension fund, has been further diversifying its portfolio through increased expo...

Bill Clinton in Seoul to meet with MBK's ByungJu Kim, business leaders

Michael ByungJu Kim, co-founder, partner and chairman of Seoul-based private equity firm MBK Partners Ltd., is set to meet with former US President ...

MBK’s Lotte Card sale gains momentum amid Homeplus fallout

North Asia-focused private equity firm MBK Partners’ second attempt to exit Lotte Card Co., South Korea’s fifth-largest car issuer, is g...

Korea’s Sono to sell Air Premia stake to focus on another LCC

South Korea's top resort operator Sono Hospitality Group has decided to sell its entire stake in low-cost carrier (LCC) Air Premia Inc. at a profit ...

NPS yet to schedule external manager selection; PE firms’ fundraising woes deepen

South Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS), the world’s third-largest pension fund, has yet to decide on a plan to select local extern...

US tariffs add risk premium to dollar assets: Maurice Obstfeld

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The US tariff increases are adding risk premiums to dollar-denominated assets, undermining the dollar’s role as a glo...

Activist fund Oasis boosts Korea team amid investor-friendly policy shift

Hong Kong-based activist fund Oasis Management is ramping up hiring for its Korea team as Seoul’s push to boost corporate value and strengthen...