The Korea Herald

Auto insurers face claims from rain damage

Jul 28, 2011

Auto insurers face a sharp increase in claims from rain damage that has caused at least 41 deaths in the capital area since Tuesday.More than 400 millimeters of precipitation was recorded in Seoul between Tuesday and Wednesday, causing a landslide at Mount Woomyeon and at least 16 deaths in the city’s south.Car insurers are expected to see a major decline in profits for the month as they were alre
Chaebol slow to promote reform of ownership

IndustryJul 28, 2011

Heads of family-run conglomerates continue to control empires with little stakesOwners of Korea’s leading family-run conglomerates, or chaebol, are still opting to employ circular intra-group shareholding practices to run a large number of affiliates with little or no stake ownership, the state-run antitrust regulator said Thursday.According to the Fair Trade Commission, each chairperson of the c
Equus tops U.S. customer satisfaction ratings

IndustryJul 28, 2011

South Korea’s top automaker Hyundai Motor Co. said Thursday that its large passenger car Equus has received the highest marks in a U.S. customer satisfaction survey, outshining BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz.The luxury sedan received 904 points out of a maximum 1,000 in the Associates Automotive Performance Execution and Layout survey by J.D. Power and Associates on new car owners from February throu
SK China enters car rental business

IndustryJul 28, 2011

HONG KONG (Yonhap News) ― The Chinese subsidiary of South Korean conglomerate SK Group said Thursday it has entered the car rental business in a bid to tap into the world’s most populous country.SK China Co. said it started renting automobiles this month in nine cities, including Beijing, Hangzhou and Shenyang.It currently has 1,200 vehicles, including sedans and sport utility vehicles manufacture
Lotte Chilsung absorbs liquor affiliate

IndustryJul 28, 2011

South Korea’s top soft drink maker Lotte Chilsung Beverage Co. said Thursday that it decided to absorb and merge with Lotte Liquor BG Co., its alcoholic beverage affiliate, to boost shareholder value.Lotte Chilsung said the merger will take effect on Oct. 1, and the merger ratio will be 1:0. Lotte Chilsung holds a 100 percent stake in Lotte Liquor.“The merger is aimed at maximizing shareholder val
Daewoo Shipbuilding Q2 net slips 3.6 pct

IndustryJul 28, 2011

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. said Thursday that its second-quarter earnings fell 3.6 percent from a year earlier as it filled more orders for low-priced ships that were won following the global economic downturn.Net income reached 170 billion won ($162 million) in the April-June period, compared with a profit of 177 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filin
S-Oil Q2 net profit more than quadruples

IndustryJul 28, 2011

S-Oil Corp. said Thursday its second-quarter net profit more than quadrupled compared to a year earlier, driven by brisk sales of petrochemicals and lubricants.In a regulatory filing, Korea’s No. 3 refiner posted 239.7 billion won ($227.7 million) in net profit for the April-June period, up 346.4 percent year-on-year.Sales shot up 63.4 percent to top 8 trillion won for the same period, setting a r
Hyundai Steel posts record quarterly figures

IndustryJul 28, 2011

Hyundai Steel said Thursday its earnings hit new highs in the April-June period, breaking the previous record set in the first three months of this year.The company posted sales of 4.05 trillion won ($3.8 billion) for the second quarter. This is the first time Hyundai Steel has posted quarterly sales of more than 4 trillion won. In comparison to the same period last year, Hyundai Steel’s sales hav
Hyundai Motor’s profit up 37% in 2nd quarter

IndustryJul 28, 2011

Hyundai Motor Co., the nation’s largest carmaker, logged a 37 percent increase in net income for the second quarter, beating consensus forecast on record overseas sales benefited from the demand-drop for Japanese carmakers after the March earthquake.The company posted a net income of 2.3 trillion won ($2.2 billion) in the April-June period, posting a sharp increase from 1.68 trillion won in the sa
KT aims to change mobile phone distribution structure

IndustryJul 28, 2011

KT Corp. announced Thursday that it is introducing a set of measures, including a fair price system, to revolutionize the mobile phone distribution process that has been untouched for 20 years.Pyo Hyun-myung, president of the mobile business group at KT, told reporters that it will publicize the price of the company’s mobile phones to its customers for them to purchase the gadgets at a fair price
Brokerage firms set to increase equity capital

Jul 28, 2011

But they remain skeptical about M&As at present stageMajor securities firms are moving to meet the regulatory requirements in a bid to attain recognition as large-sized investment banks.The brokerages, such as Daewoo Securities and Samsung Securities, are poised to resort to increasing their equity capital as an initial step rather than pushing for mergers among them.Most of them plan to increase
Ratio of exports to GDP hits new record in Q2

Jul 28, 2011

The weight of exports in the South Korean economy hit an all-time high in the second quarter, central bank data showed Thursday, underlining the country’s heavy dependence on overseas shipments for economic growth.Seasonally adjusted exports of goods and services amounted to 141.7 trillion won ($134.6 billion) in the April-June period, or 52.68 percent of the gross domestic product, according to t
SKT on road to mutual growth

IndustryJul 28, 2011

Country’s top mobile carrier signs shared growth agreement with 360 partnersSK Telecom, the country’s top mobile carrier, is on the road to emphasizing mutual growth as it embarks on a number of projects with its smaller subcontractors.On Tuesday, SKT pledged mutual growth with its seven partners on establishing a nationwide network for fourth generation Long Term Evolution technology. The seven p
Sonata, K5 hybrids draw global attention

TransportJul 28, 2011

Hyundai-Kia gear up to catch up with Toyota hybridsHyundai Motor and Kia Motors had fallen behind Toyota Motor and Honda Motor in developing fuel-efficient and eco-friendly vehicles.But the nation’s two affiliated companies have plunged into keen competition to dominate the international green car markets by launching the hybrid version of popular sedans this year.“While we have joined the growing
Japan’s retail sales rise for first time since quake

IndustryJul 28, 2011

Japan’s retail sales rose in June, exceeding all economists’ forecasts, adding to signs that the economy is bouncing back from an initial post-disaster plunge. Sales rose 1.1 percent in June from a year earlier, the Trade Ministry said Thursday in Tokyo. The median estimate of 16 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 0.5 percent decline, with the highest estimate for a 0.6 percent gain.