Brokerage firms enjoy rising bets on global derivatives

South Korean brokerage houses enjoyed a bumper year in 2020 with a record fee income from global derivatives trading, driven by retail investors' ve...

Riiid makes list of world's 100 most promising AI firms

South Korea-based startup Riiid Inc. has been named to the annual AI 100 list issued by global market research firm CB Insights. The AI 100 is a lis...

Chips, EV and AI lead Korean firms' 2020 R&D spending

Semiconductor chips, electric vehicles and artificial intelligence (AI) drove the top 100 South Korean companies' spending on research and developme...

Hanwha seeks to acquire Overair; invest in satellite, drone companies

Hanwha Systems Co., the defense and information technology service unit of Hanwha Group, is seeking to purchase the entire stake of US air taxi star...

Chinese PE firm pays $1.4 bn to take over Magnachip Semiconductor

South Korean chipmaker Magnachip Semiconductor Corp. announced on Mar. 27 that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by China-ba...

Korean firms diversify boardrooms with experts, women

Leading South Korean companies are diversifying their once rubber-stamp boards with a broader pool of professionals and women, alongside the growing...

Consulting firms enjoy boom as pandemic drives new business strategies

Slightly more than a year since the COVID-19 pandemic upended the business world, the role of management consultants has become important more than ...

KIC, Hyundai Heavy to co-invest $900 mn in growth firms

The sovereign wealth fund Korea Investment Corporation (KIC) will make co-investments worth up to 1 trillion won ($900 million) alongside the Hyunda...

Pandemic polarizes pay between tech and non-tech firms

Last year's expansion of contactless technologies and services has created a new salary gap among key industries and companies in South Korea.  ...

Global law firms in Korea hunt for talent amid growing outbound M&As

Leading international law firms with offices in South Korea are gearing up for growing legal service demand from local companies in their push for m...

Online fashion platform Musinsa raises $115 mn from VC firms

South Korea’s top online fashion retailer Musinsa has raised another 130 billion won ($115 million) from Sequoia Capital and IMM Investment, g...

Korean Air raises $2.9 bn in largest-ever share issue by Korean firm

Korean Air Lines Co. has raised 3.32 trillion won ($2.9 billion) from a new share sale as planned in the the largest-ever rights offering by a domes...

China logistics firms yield decent returns for Korean investors

MBK Partners and two leading South Korean conglomerates – SK and CJ groups – have chalked up hefty returns from investments in Chinese l...

Bain Capital to invest $360 mn in Korea’s top ERP developer

Bain Capital has agreed to invest around 400 billion won ($360 million) in South Korea’s leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) software d...

Korean firms rush to tap bond market ahead of rate hikes

New corporate bond issuance in South Korea is on course to hit 9.2 trillion won ($8.3 billion) in February of this year, the highest amount issued f...

E-commerce platform TMON raises $276 mn in pre-IPO share sale

South Korea’s e-commerce platform TMON Inc., majority-owned by KKR & Co. and Anchor Equity Partners, has completed its pre-IPO share sale ...

S.Korean internet-only bank seeks to raise $540 mn; attracts global PE firms

South Korea’s internet-only bank, K bank, is seeking to raise up to 600 billion won ($540 million) through a rights offering, attracting glo...

Korean PE firm to reap hefty returns from US bio investment

Medivate Partners, South Korea’s life science-focused private equity firm, is set to secure more than 2.5 times its investment of around 60 bi...

Korean game firms target global market with IP portfolio

The growth of South Korea's game industry this year is likely to be led by new titles created by cashing in on the intellectual property of popular ...

Korean VC firm KTB Network aims for 2021 IPO

KTB Network Co., a South Korean venture capital firm, will renew its plans to go public this year, after its aggressive investments in both domestic...

Shinsegae VC firm invests in ride-sharing giant Grab

South Korean retail giant Shinsegae Group's corporate venture capital (CVC) fund Signite Partners has invested in Grab Holdings Inc., a Southeast As...

Chip shortages spread to backend firms, disrupting supply chains

A worldwide semiconductor shortage, which started with automotive chips, is getting worse, spreading to equipment makers and backend companies that ...

Survival of the fittest for Korean firms in COVID-19 era

The global COVID-19 pandemic has shaken up South Korea's industry landscape, whereby in each of the country's core industries, such as airline, smar...

S.Korean chem firms hasten shift to bioplastics amid China's plastic ban

South Korea’s chemical industry is in crisis mode as China declares war on plastics, likely to deliver a heavy blow to Korean companies that b...

SK Innovation buys 13% stake in China’s EV battery-swap station operator

SK Innovation Co. has signed a deal to acquire a 13% stake in a Chinese electric vehicle battery-swap station operator, as the South Korean company ...

Surging freight rates, bulker shortages squeeze Korean importers

Surging sea freight rates, coupled with a shortage of bulk carriers and container ships, are putting South Korean exporters and importers in a bind ...

S.Korean chem firms look to specialty chemicals to drive growth

South Korea-based Kumho Petrochemical Co. stunned the market last year with a positive earnings surprise in the third quarter of 2020. The company...

Kia drops Motors from name, unveils roadmap for new EV models

Kia Motors Corp., a unit of Hyundai Motor Group, has dropped Motors from its name, as the company breaks away from its traditional manufacturing-dri...

Korean PE firm acquires Achronix Semiconductor via SPAC merger

South Korea-based private equity firm Ace Equity Partners has acquired Achronix Semiconductor Corp., a US-based fabless company, through a special p...

LG takes over controlling stake in US TV data analysis firm Alphonso

South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc. has acquired a controlling stake in US-based TV data analysis startup Alphonso Inc. to strengthen its softwa...