Neofect, a South Korean medical technology startup specializing in smart rehabilitation solutions, has begun procedures to be listed on the country’s secondary bourse, Kosdaq, by next month, the company said Monday.　　Neofect has applied for preliminary screening of its planned initial public offering, putting up for sale 1.8 million shares at 10,000-12,500 won ($9-11) per share. 　　The company is looking to raise between 18 billion and 22.5 billion won through the IPO. The book-building process w

Samsung Medison, a medical equipment manufacturer under South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, on Monday unveiled a next-generation ultrasound system expected to better facilitate examinations during high-risk pregnancies and the early diagnosis of fetal abnormalities.　The company is showcasing HERA W10 -- short for Hyper-aperture Enhanced Reconstruction Architecture -- at the 28th World Congress of the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology in Singapore, whuch continues un

Hankook Tire Co., the world's seventh-largest tiremaker by sales, said Monday that it has begun to supply its ultra high-performance tires to Volkswagen's Tiguan R-Line package.Hankook Tire said it began to supply the all-season tire, the "Ventus S1 noble2," as original equipment tires to the Volkswagen sport utility vehicle in March this year.(Yonhap)The South Korean tiremaker has maintained a strategic partnership with the German carmaker since 2001, when it started outfitting the Jetta sedans

Beauty products are becoming a very important export driver, with shipments growing by leaps and bounds, a report by a local trade promotion agency said Monday. According to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, South Korea exported $4.96 billion worth of cosmetics last year, four times more than in 2013. (Yonhap)K-beauty exports for January-September this year came to $4.6 billion, up 31.4 percent from the same period last year, the report said.Cosmetics exports last year were equal to 1

Online shopping sites are losing visitors, with the number falling by some 14 percent over the past two years, industry data showed Monday.The data counted 77.97 million people visiting the six major online shopping malls in September, down from 83.86 million in the same month last year. Compared with 90.89 million in September 2016, the latest figure is a 14.2 percent drop. (Yonhap)By company, TMON showed the biggest decline of 25.6 percent during the two-year period, followed by 11st, which lo

Samsung Medison, a health care instrument manufacturer under Samsung Electronics Co., on Monday unveiled a new premium ultrasound system, HERA W10, which delivers improved image quality for more accurate diagnoses of patients.Samsung said HERA W10, which stands for Hyper-aperture Enhanced Reconstruction Architecture, boasts an elevenfold increase in processing power and is 10 times faster compared with its previous system, the company said.The product was introduced at the 28th World Congress of

Hyundai Motor’s high performance vehicle i30 N set a new monthly sales record in Europe last month, the company said Sunday.The carmaker sold a total of 907 units in September, further raising the sales performance of the vehicle, which debuted last year. The figure takes the total for this year to 4,678, surpassing its annual goal of 2,800.  i30 Fastback N (Hyundai Motor)Of all i30 vehicles sold in Europe, 15 percent were the high performance version of the hatchback, it added. The company is e

Renault Samsung, the South Korean branch of the French carmaker, has launched a membership-based mobile application for easier vehicle management, the company said Sunday.Named “My Renault Samsung,” the app offers online reservation and maintenance tracking systems as well as information on customer service and various promotional events held by the carmaker. In the near future, the company plans to adopt a mobile-payment system in connection with the app for vehicles that undergo maintenance se

Samsung Electronics is making deals and announcing new activities in target business areas wherever its de facto leader goes, though the company refuses to confirm any connection between the two.The itinerary of Lee Jae-yong’s latest trip seems to be closely connected to the South Korean conglomerate’s new business interests -- mainly artificial intelligence. Lee is the vice chairman of Samsung Electronics and the only son of Chairman Lee Kun-hee who has been in hospital since suffering from a s

KT will start providing real-time subtitles in eight languages for its internet protocol TV service Olleh TV, starting Monday, to better serve foreign-born customers in South Korea, the mobile carrier said Sunday. Multilingual subtitling will be offered for four news channels and will feature subtitles in English, Japanese, Chinese, French, Spanish, Vietnamese and Uzbek.  Foreign models pose ahead of the introduction of a real-time multilingual subtitling service for KT’s Olleh TV. (KT)KT unveil

Mergers and acquisitions are approached carefully and reviewed in depth. While they can help make the company an industry leader, they can also destroy in the company by overloading it in debt.Volvo Construction Equipment Korea, which was created when the Swedish company purchased the construction equipment business from Samsung Heavy Industries in 1998, celebrated its 20th anniversary last week in a festive mood, looking back on the growth achieved.Volvo CE President Melker Jernberg who visited

The Korea Gas Corporation, a public natural gas company, is seeking to solidify its leadership in the natural gas and liquefied natural gas business with continued investment at home and abroad. The company currently provides natural gas to more than 90 percent of the nation’s regions with its four LNG terminals, 72 natural gas storage facilities, and pipes measuring a combined 4,848 kilometers in length. Liquefied natural gas is widely considered a “clean” fuel because dust, sulfur and nitrogen

A group of students from French business school ESCP Europe in Paris visited South Korean e-commerce company Coupang last week to learn about the local e-commerce market and gain insight into the rapid growth of Coupang, the company said Sunday.Fifteen MBA students from ESCP visited Coupang’s headquarters Thursday during their five-day trip to Korea to meet with representatives of leading Korean e-commerce, beauty and automotive companies. Coupang’s Senior Director Patxi Gueracague speaks with s

The South Korean city of Incheon said Sunday it will consider retrieving land that it offered to General Motors Co.‘s local unit for use as a test track as the company pushes ahead with a plan to spin off its research division. GM Korea’s shareholders approved the split plan Friday, sparking concerns that the US carmaker may keep only its research facility in South Korea and eventually shut down its manufacturing facilities here. Incheon provided the 410,000-square-meter land to GM with a 30-yea

Kakao Games, which recently pushed back its initial public offering plans to next year to prioritize internal growth, is stepping up efforts to successfully launch and service a variety of new games on its home turf of South Korea by year’s end. 　The game publishing unit of Kakao is set to launch within this month “Friends Racing,” a casual game featuring Kakao Friends, the flagship characters from the country’s top-used mobile messenger KakaoTalk. Players can choose among eight Kakao Friends ch