A generation indebted: Young Koreans struggle under record loans in Q1

Young South Koreans are drowning in debt.Korean youths in their 20s and 30s are reeling under growing personal debt as they aggressively take out pe...

Defense stocks rally in response to China Xi's speech

South Korean manufacturers of jet fighters, aircraft engines and weapon systems saw their share prices soaring in heavy trade on Monday, powered by ...

Korean corporate bonds suffer from cooling investor sentiment

South Korean corporate bond markets are set to suffer from shrinking liquidity as institutional investors are turning cautious and refraining from m...

SK REIT to raise $266 million via Kospi IPO in second half

SK Inc.’s real estate investment trust (REIT) affiliate plans to raise as much as 300 billion won ($266 million) via an initial public offerin...

GS Group joins race to acquire Korea’s botox maker Hugel

A consortium led by South Korea’s GS Group is in talks to acquire a controlling stake in Hugel Inc., the country’s top maker of botulinu...

HYBE's No.3 investor exits from BTS label in block deal

Seoul-based STIC Investments, the third-largest shareholder in South Korea's HYBE Co., sold its remaining shares in the label behind BTS, in a block...

Samsung Life eyes CPPIB-style stake purchases in GPs

Samsung Life Insurance Co. has drawn attention from South Korean pension and savings funds with its $90 million purchase last month of a stake in Sa...

Korea’s super-rich: How their wealth ballooned during the pandemic

In South Korea, just like any other major economies, the stock market has been a mine of gold even for small investors, who enjoyed hefty gains from...

Art auction sales in Korea soar to highest point since 2008 financial crisis

South Korea’s art market is facing the biggest boom since the global financial crisis, drawing wealthy investors and art enthusiasts alike. Se...

Toss en route to being Korea’s first fintech decacorn; valuation tops $7 bn

South Korea-based mobile financial platform Toss is en route to becoming the country's first fintech decacorn, or a company valued at over $10 billi...

BOK ratchets up warning over asset price bubble, private debt

The recent asset price rises in South Korea, in particular in the equities and real estate markets, have been too rapid, even considering an expecte...

Once resistant, Korean retail investors lend more stocks for short selling

South Korean retail investors, who had largely opposed the regulator’s lifting of the short-selling ban on large-cap stocks from May, are now ...

Korea’s coal power companies squeezed for financing amid ESG fever

South Korea’s coal power companies are facing tighter scrutiny for debt financing as they are increasingly shunned by financial investors amid...

Secondary PE deals headed for record year: Pomona Capital

Secondary private equity deals have been the fastest-growing segment of the private equity market for several years and this year, they could exceed...

Kakao becomes 3rd most valuable company in Korea

Kakao Corp. is now the third most valuable company in Korea, after Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc.Kakao’s market cap on June 15 surp...

Blackstone-invested handbag maker Simone applies for IPO review

South Korea’s luxury handbag maker Simone Acc. Collection Ltd., 30% owned by US private equity firm Blackstone, has kicked off a process to li...

Korean insurers finance Carlyle's $2 bn deal with ESG debt

South Korean life insurers have made an environmental, social and governance (ESG)-themed investment in The Carlyle Group's €2 billion ($2.4 bi...

Hanwha Systems’ $1 bn rights offer oversubscribed; investors to book gains

South Korea’s Hanwha Systems Co. is set for a successful rights offering as the defense and air mobility unit of Hanwha Group has garnered str...

KDB bets big on fintech platform Toss ahead of 2023 IPO

The Korea Development Bank (KDB) has decided to invest 80 billion won ($72 million) in the fintech startup Toss via a rights offering. This marks th...

Samsung returns as foreigners’ top pick; Kospi just shy of record high

Samsung Electronics Co., the bellwether of South Korea’s main bourse, has returned as the market darling, with foreigners buying heavily on th...

Goldman Sachs zeros in on midmarket, ESG infrastructure deals

Goldman Sachs Asset Management focuses on middle-market, value-add strategy for infrastructure deals, targeting the sectors undergoing a digital tra...

Madison Capital Funding raises $460 mn from Korea

A private debt fund managed by Madison Capital Funding, a US middle-market lender, has received a combined $460 million in commitments from seven So...

Hyundai tops Korean institutions' May buying list

Hyundai Motor became the key beneficiary of South Korean institutional investors' heavy buying on the local bourse this month as the global chip sho...

Korean LPs commit over $200 mn to UK real estate fund

A UK-focused real estate debt fund, managed by New York-based BentallGreenOak, has received a combined £170 million ($241 million) in commitme...

Lotte Rental kicks off $360 mn IPO process, seeks $1.8 bn valuation

South Korea’s leading rental car company Lotte Rental Co. has kicked off an initial public offering process to raise some 400 billion won ($36...

Hana, ECP signs $300 mn infra investment partnership

South Korea's Hana Financial Investment Co. has signed a $300 million strategic partnership with US energy infrastructure-specialized firm ECP to in...

Sculptor Capital bets on non-traditional real estate

Non-traditional real estate assets such as cell towers, parking lots and marinas will likely provide significant investment opportunities to debt in...

Songs and art: Fractional investing bedazzles millennial investors

Meet Mr. A, born in the '80s and a self-proclaimed "analog person" who enjoys collecting CDs and artbooks of his favorite painters. But recently, Mr...

Korean investors in renewed push for global property deals

South Korea's IGIS Asset Management Co. and Hana Financial Investment Co. have acquired a 49% stake in the headquarters of the US mortgage lender Fa...

SK IE Tech IPO draws record-high demand; brokerage servers down briefly

SK IE Technology Co. (SKIET), the battery materials subsidiary of SK Innovation Co., has set a new record for initial public offering demand, briefl...