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...

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...

TaylorMade sale takes new turn as F&F hires Goldman for bid

F&F Holdings Co., a South Korean fashion retailer and the largest strategic investor in TaylorMade, has entered a head-to-head showdown with Cen...

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...

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...

HYBE sparks summer vibes with BTS live album, TXT comeback, new boy band launch

HYBE Co., a South Korean music powerhouse, is turning up the heat this summer with a wave of major releases, including a live album from its flagshi...

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 ...

LG Energy, GM’s JV Ultium Cells to retrofit Tennessee plant to produce LFP batteries

Ultium Cells LLC, a battery joint venture between South Korea’s LG Energy Solution Ltd. and General Motors Co., will upgrade its battery cell ...

KPop Demon Hunters OST lands at No.6 on Billboard Hot 100

The original soundtrack Golden from Netflix’s hit animated movie KPop Demon Hunters has made chart history, becoming the first track by a virt...

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...

Blackpink's new single Jump tops Spotify daily chart

Blackpink's new single Jump has rocketed to No. 1 on the Spotify Daily Top Songs Global chart, YG Entertainment Inc., the company behind the girl gr...

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...

Return of the K-pop queens: Blackpink, Twice power up YG, JYP

Blackpink and Twice, two of South Korea’s most prominent K-pop female acts, made high-profile returns on Friday with new releases, heightening...

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...

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 ...

Hong Kong-based CLSA to invest $36.6 mn in K-Beauty pioneer Jungsaemmool Beauty

Hong Kong-based private equity firm CLSA Capital Partners Ltd. has been picked as a preferred bidder to invest 50 billion won ($36.6 million) in Jun...

Samsung Electro-Mechanics’ plan to build plant in Mexico shelved amid Trump tariffs

Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., a leading South Korean electronics parts maker, has abandoned plans to build a new manufacturing plant in Mexico and ...

S.Korea to elevate science minister to deputy prime minister to lead in AI race

South Korea will elevate its new science minister to a deputy ministerial post, giving him authority to serve as the top coordinator of the governme...

Yonsei University: Unlikely yet adroit dealmaker in S.Korea’s M&A market

For decades, or probably for centuries, Yonsei University has been seen as an ivory tower – a place for academics – in South Korea.One o...

The wait is over: BTS are back with new album, global tour in spring 2026

Now the wait is over.BTS are back – as a full-member group after a four-year hiatus.The seven-member boy band is returning with a new album in...

Taekwang, Anchor Equity shortlisted for Aekyung stake

Taekwang Industrial Co., a South Korean chemical and textile company, and Anchor Equity Partners, a Hong Kong-based private equity firm, have emerge...

Blackstone in talks to acquire Korea’s top salon chain Juno Hair in $590 mn deal

US private equity firm Blackstone Inc. is pursuing the acquisition of Juno Hair, South Korea’s largest premium hair salon chain, in a deal tha...

Netmarble to debut new games with fresh IPs, platforms in second half

Netmarble Corp. is gearing up for a strong year-end with plans to launch at least six more new games, powered by original intellectual properties, a...

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...

Even barcodes copied: Counterfeits invasion threatens K-brands

Counterfeit Korean beauty, fashion and food products are surging on overseas e-commerce platforms, with lookalike packaging making them hard to dist...

SK Hynix leads Samsung in customized HBM; lands Nvidia, Microsoft deals

SK Hynix Inc. has secured Nvidia Corp., Microsoft Corp. and Broadcom Inc. as key clients of its customized high-bandwidth memory (HBM), positioning ...