Korea’s game studios rebrand as AI tech firms, move into fashion, robotics, media

What was once a world of elves, dragons and power-ups is now giving rise to one of South Korea’s most unexpected tech revolutions, with game s...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...

US unveils 25% tariffs on S.Korea, sets Aug. 1 deadline for agreement

US President Donald Trump on Monday announced new tariffs of 25% on South Korea, set to take effect on Aug. 1 unless the two countries reach a trade...

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...

Goldman Sachs acquires Mercure Ambassador: 1st stint with Korean hotels

Goldman Sachs, in partnership with JB Asset Management Co., has acquired Mercure Ambassador Seoul Hongdae, a prominent mixed-use commercial property...

Affinity Equity nets $220 mn from block sale of Shinhan Financial

Affinity Equity Partners has unloaded its remaining shares in Shinhan Financial Group, the second largest banking group in South Korea, for about 58...

Loss-making Lotte Chemical to sell water treatment unit to Synopex

Lotte Chemical Corp., South Korea’s second-largest petrochemical company grappling with mounting losses amid a prolonged industry downturn, wi...

Google to invest $100 mn in Gentle Monster in smart glasses push

Google LLC has signed an agreement to invest about 145.0 billion won ($100 million) in Gentle Monster, the South Korean fashion eyewear brand that i...

Affirma Capital to acquire Equis’ Korean waste assets for $294 million

Affirma Capital, a Singapore-headquartered buyout private equity firm, has agreed to acquire the entire portfolio of South Korean waste processing a...

LG CNS forms strategic partnership with robotics startup Skild AI

LG CNS Co., the information technology service arm of LG Group, said on Tuesday it has formed a strategic partnership with Skild AI to develop AI-dr...

CJ CGV under pressure to shed China, Vietnam cinema assets

MBK Partners and Mirae Asset Securities Co. are considering divesting of their holdings in CGI Holdings Co., which oversees CJ CGV Co.’s multi...

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...

S.Korea’s No.1 dried seaweed firm Kwangcheonkim on market for $295 mn

Kwangcheonkim Co., South Korea’s largest seaweed producer with a history spanning over 50 years, is up for grabs in a deal that could fetch up...

Lotte Chemical, HD Hyundai seek to combine naphtha cracking facilities

Lotte Chemical Corp. and HD Hyundai Co. are in talks to consolidate their naphtha cracking operations in South Korea’s Daesan petrochemical co...

US monitors NPS, sovereign funds in expanded currency surveillance

Washington will strengthen its monitoring of portfolio investments by pension and sovereign wealth funds of its trading partners as it broadens its ...

Korea signs definitive $19 bn Czech nuclear plant deal after twists and turns

South Korea has secured its most significant nuclear export deal in over a decade, as a consortium led by Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) cli...

Shinhan expands global IR push to woo foreign investors

Shinhan Financial Group Co. is stepping up efforts to attract foreign investors with back-to-back global investor relations (IR) campaigns, as South...

Goodai Global poised to build L'Oréal-style empire via M&As

Goodai Global Inc. is seeking to acquire South Korea’s first-generation independent cosmetics brand Skinfood for about 150 billion won ($108 m...

OpenAI sets up entity in Korea with most paid ChatGPT users outside US

OpenAI Inc., the creator of generative AI ChatGPT, has established a legal entity in South Korea, which has the largest number of paying ChatGPT sub...

Bold food tech R&D fuels global rise of Korean cuisine

South Korea’s processed food exports are expected to reach 6 trillion won ($4.4 billion) this year after Korean food companies have aggressive...

Morgan Stanley stalwart Cho bows out after over 10 years at the helm   

The investment banking head of Morgan Stanley’s Seoul office is stepping down after overseeing a series of landmark deals over more than a dec...

Mirae Asset Global Investments’ AUM tops $288 bn as global push pays off

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. now manages more than 400 trillion won ($288 billion) in assets for the first time since its first global venture...

Korean financial firms launch global IR blitz to woo foreign capital  

Chiefs of South Korea’s major financial groups – Shinhan, Woori and iM – are ramping up global investor outreach with new sharehol...

Hamilton Lane invests in IMM infrastructure fund in secondary deal

Global private market investor Hamilton Lane Inc. has acquired a stake in Seoul-based alternative investment firm IMM Investment’s infrastruct...

S.Korea’s Lunit installs breast cancer AI diagnostic tool at 200 US hospitals

Lunit Inc., a South Korean AI-powered cancer diagnostics company, said on Monday that more than 200 healthcare institutions across the US have now a...

Hyundai Rotem lands $301 mn Taiwan driverless train deal

Hyundai Rotem Co. has won a 420 billion won ($301 million) order to build autonomous electric trains for Taiwan’s Taichung Metro, adding to a ...