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...
Kakao’s private affiliates post record growth in 2020
South Korean tech giant Kakao’s unlisted subsidiaries have posted record-high growth figures for the previous financial year. According to Kak...
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...
Affinity Equity set to acquire Korea’s top recruitment portal JobKorea
Affinity Equity Partners, a global private equity firm, is set to acquire the entire stake of South Korea’s top recruitment portal JobKorea &n...
KIC names new private equity, absolute return heads
The Korea Investment Corporation (KIC) has named new heads of its private equity and absolute return groups this week, following the replacement of ...
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...
CVC, TPG, MBK, Affinity Equity in final bidding for JobKorea
Local and foreign private equity firms are among the final bidders for the entire stake of South Korea’s top recruitment portal JobKorea &ndas...
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...
NPS divides global securities division into equity, fixed income
The National Pension Service has divided up its global public market division into Global Equity and Global Fixed Income divisions as part of a plan...
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...
Japan’s JSR reaches out to Lotte, LG for sale of synthetic rubber business
Japan’s JSR Corp. is reaching out to Korean chemical companies to dispose of its synthetic rubber business and focus instead on semiconductor ...
Brokerage firms see losses on $7 bn overseas alternatives
South Korea’s 22 brokerage firms have classified a combined 7.5 trillion won ($6.9 billion), or 15.7%, of their cumulative overseas alternat...
Korean firms' Q4 earnings seen to jump, led by exporters
Exporters, including Samsung Electronics Co., LG Chem Ltd. and Samsung SDI Co., are estimated to have led a sharp increase in listed South Korean ...
