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...

Weverse BTS Community tops 30 mn subscribers, platform's largest

The BTS Community on Weverse, the online fan engagement platform where the boy band first announced plans to return as a full-member group next spri...

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...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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-style strikes back to win over China’s Gen Z with Musinsa at helm

Musinsa, South Korea’s fashion unicorn backed by KKR Co., is set to bring the K-style wave to China with Anta Sports Products Ltd., China's le...

Korean waste management firm Koentec put on market for $730 mn

Korea Environment Technology Co. (Koentec) is up for sale in a deal that could fetch up to 1 trillion won ($730.4 million) with global private equit...

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...

Roborock’s privacy policy fuels data leak fears over Chinese goods

A new personal data processing policy from Chinese robot vacuum maker Roborock is raising fears that consumer data could be leaked to or misused by ...

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...

POSCO E&C wins $1.1 bn LNG terminal deal in Thailand

POSCO E&C Co., a South Korean engineering and construction company, said on Tuesday that it has secured a 1.5 trillion won ($1.1 billion) contra...

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...

Naver Financial seeks to acquire S. Korean real estate data platform Asil

Naver Financial Corp., the fintech subsidiary of South Korean tech giant Naver Corp., is looking to acquire Asil, a domestic big data-based real est...

Lotte Biologics signs antibody drug CMO deal with UK’s Ottimo Pharma

BOSTON – Lotte Biologics Co. has signed a deal to manufacture an antibody therapy for British biotech startup Ottimo Pharma as the South Korea...

Amazon, Alibaba, TikTok up ante to woo Korean beauty brands

Riding the wave of global enthusiasm for K-Beauty, e-commerce powerhouses like Amazon and Alibaba are racing to bring South Korean cosmetics and bea...

Want to look beautiful? – Here’s the 'Made In Korea' mask pack

South Korean face mask packs – a flagship product of K-beauty – are staging a dramatic revival in popularity.Rising to fame alongside K-...

Chinese e-commerce growth stalls in South Korea

Chinese e-commerce players’ rapid expansion into the South Korean online retail market is losing steam as their bang-for-the-buck products hav...

Kakao Mobility to build smart infrastructure for Saudi Diriyah project

Kakao Mobility Corp., which runs South Korea’s most popular ride-hailing app, Kakao T, has clinched a deal to build a future mobility infrastr...

Tencent to become SM Entertainment's No. 2 shareholder via HYBE deal

Tencent Music Entertainment Group is set to become the second-largest shareholder of SM Entertainment Co. by acquiring HYBE Co.'s remaining shares i...

Europe looms large as K-beauty brands look to blue ocean; shares rise

South Korea’s beauty industry has been reaping decent gains from traditionally strong markets such as China and the US – the world&rsquo...

Shinhan Securities acquires stake in Vietnam’s top trading platform FireAnt

Shinhan Securities Co., a leading South Korean brokerage house, has acquired a strategic equity stake in FireAnt, Vietnam’s largest retail tra...

Vietnam, gateway for SK Group’s global renewable energy push

TIEN GIANG, VIETNAM – Off the coast of Vietnam’s Tien Giang Province, 36 wind turbines spin steadily with a constant whoosh and swish, g...