Korean VC firms lose appetite for investment in startups amid dearth of IPOs, M&As for exit

South Korea’s startup community is facing its sharpest funding squeeze in over a decade, as venture capital (VC) firms retreat from new invest...

Korea passes controversial ‘Yellow Envelope Act,’ inviting backlash from employers, foreign firms

South Korea’s Parliament has approved sweeping labor reforms known as the “Yellow Envelope Act,” prompting a fierce backlash ...

French specialty gas maker Air Liquide signs $2.9 bn deal to acquire DIG Airgas from Macquarie

Air Liquide SA, a French multinational industrial gas and services company, has signed a share purchase agreement to acquire South Korea’s DIG...

Mastern Investment puts 13 E-Mart outlets up for sale in package deal

Mastern Investment Management Co., a Seoul-based real estate investment firm, is putting 13 E-Mart Inc. outlets it acquired from the South Korean re...

EQT acquires controlling stake in Remember, Korea’s answer to LinkedIn

Sweden’s EQT Partners, one of Europe’s largest private equity firms, has signed a deal to acquire Remember & Company, the operator o...

SK divests of Vingroup stake for $1 bn in restructuring move

SK Group has cashed out its entire 6.05% stake in Vingroup, Vietnam’s largest conglomerate, for more than 1.3 trillion won ($935.5 million), c...

JP Morgan advises sale of Korea’s professional network Remember   

JP Morgan has been appointed to lead the sale of Remember & Company, the South Korean firm behind the country’s popular business card and ...

Seoul downtown office glut fears overblown: Savills Korea CEO

The prime office market in core business districts in Seoul is expected to remain strong, said Savills Korea chief, citing limited new supply and th...

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...

Hanwha-owned burger chain Five Guys Korea up for sale two years after launch

South Korea’s Hanwha Group is seeking to sell the Korean operations of US premium burger chain Five Guys, two years after the brand’s hi...

KKR in control feud over Korea’s top solar power plant

Global private equity giant KKR & Co. Inc. is embroiled in a management dispute over South Korea’s top solar power plant with key individu...

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...

F&F’s bid for TaylorMade complicates Centroid's exit

South Korean fashion retailer F&F Co., the largest strategic investor in TaylorMade Golf Co., has announced a bid for the golf equipment and app...

US-South Korea talks scrapped after Trump's early G7 exit

A planned meeting between South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and US President Donald Trump was canceled on Monday after Trump unexpectedly left ...

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...

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...

Centroid to divest control of TaylorMade as exit strategy, drops IPO plan

Centroid Investment Partners, a South Korean private equity firm, has confirmed plans to divest its controlling stake in US sports equipment manufac...

Half of Seoul offices now over 30 years old amid limited new supply

About half of the office buildings in Seoul’s major business districts are over 30 years old, falling short of demand for modern and high-end ...

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 ...

LG Electronics eyes India IPO delay, says plan in flux

LG Electronics Inc. is mulling putting off an initial public offering of its wholly owned subsidiary in India amid growing volatility in the global ...

MBK sees better exit landscape in 2025, bets on governance reform

MBK Partners sees a recovery in the exit environment in 2025 and seeks to capitalize on the opportunities emerging from corporate governance reform ...

Global real estate market poised for strong rebound: Savills

The global real estate market is expected to pick up significantly over the next few years, with around $500 billion worth of real estate assets, he...

SK Hynix to exit image sensor market to focus on AI chips

SK Hynix Inc. will shutter its image sensor business as the South Korean memory giant doubles down on the development of premium artificial intellig...

Kyobo Life’s Shin in talks with Affinity, GIC over exits below purchase price

Kyobo Life Insurance Co., South Korea’s third-largest life insurer, is in talks with some of its financial investors (FIs) to help them exit f...

IMM PE exits Woori Financial with double-digit return

IMM Private Equity has divested its remaining 1.38% stake in Woori Financial Group for 166.4 billion won ($115 million), exiting the South Korean fi...

Hanwha to exit from polysilicon business in US

Hanwha Solutions Corp., the energy unit of South Korea’s chemicals-to-financial conglomerate Hanwha Group, will likely withdraw from the polys...

Korea to ease rules for petrochem industry M&As, plant closures

South Korea will ease regulations and offer incentives to facilitate the restructuring of domestic petrochemical makers battling a global suppl...

LX Pantos IPO delayed as Mirae Asset sells stake

South Korea’s leading brokerage firm Mirae Asset Securities Co. is poised to sell its stake in LX Pantos Co., adding to expectations of more d...

Shinsegae affiliate SSG.COM secures Olympus as new financial investor

Korean retail giant Shinsegae Group’s online shopping mall operator SSG.COM has secured Olympus, a special purpose company created by Korean b...

SK Hynix chief says no delay in 12-layer HBM3E supply as demand soars

Kwak Noh-jung, chief executive of SK Hynix Inc., the world’s second-largest memory chipmaker, has said there will be no delay in the company&r...