A lobby group of Korea’s large businesses on Thursday expressed its objection to a proposed bill on strengthening rules to ensure manufacturing and financial companies will not exert too much control over each other.The opposition came hours after a group of ruling Saenuri Party lawmakers committed to so-called “economic democratization” announced a plan to submit the bill to the National Assembly next week at the latest.The bill, among other things, is meant to limit voting rights of financial

South Korea’s state-run pension fund has invested some $640 million in debt-stricken European countries, a report showed Thursday, sparking concern over losses due to the persistent eurozone sovereign crisis.The National Pension Service had $639.8 million of exposure to Greece, Spain, Ireland, Italy and Portugal as of June, according to the NPS report. Equity investment reached $339.8 million, with bond holdings making up the remainder.By country, investment in Italy was the largest at $310 mill

South Korean stocks finished little changed on Thursday as investors turned cautious before the U.S. central bank’s decision on another round of monetary stimulus to boost the economy, analysts said. The local currency declined against the U.S. dollar.Swinging between gains and losses, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index gained 0.66 points, or 0.03 percent, to 1,950.69. Trading volume was heavy at 956.4 million shares worth 5.97 trillion won ($5.29 billion), with gainers slightly out

South Korean private equity fund Vogo Fund will take over the local chain of Burger King from franchise restaurant operator SRS Korea Co. for about 100 billion won ($88.7 million) this year, industry sources said Thursday. According to the sources, the local fund has completed negotiations to buy the chain of global fast food restaurant Burger King in South Korea with Doosan Group that has SRS Korea under its wing and will sign a preliminary deal for the acquisition some time soon. The deal is e

Financial companies which drew a relatively high number of complaints from customers will be subject to full-fledged investigations by regulators.The Financial Supervisory Service said Thursday that it has decided to conduct a large-scale probe into the overall sector including banks, brokerages, credit card firms, insurance firms and savings banks.This will mark the first time that the FSS will probe the overall financial sector simultaneously in terms of customer complaints over each company,

HONG KONG (Yonhap News) ― Apple Inc.’s latest iPhone unveiled Wednesday is lacking the so-called “wow” factor, as most of the new features introduced have already been expected, foreign investors said Thursday.Apple introduced the iPhone 5, of which new features include a faster network, a more efficient processor, a thinner design and a bigger 4-inch screen. The product will hit nine countries on Sept. 21 and 100 countries by the end of 2012.“In our view, the key difference against other recent

Lee Ji-sun managed to sell off her small apartment in southern Seoul last month amid rising concern that a prolonged economic slowdown could send home prices into a downward spiral down the road.The price of the 73-square-meter apartment rose to its record high of 600 million won ($530,000) in late 2009, but it tumbled to 450 million won in August, a steep decline that analysts blamed on a litany of economic woes.“I sold my apartment out of fear that its price could drop further,” the 40-year-ol

GENEVA (UPI) -- Income inequality, based on trends in the past three decades, has been increasing both within countries and between them, says a U.N. report.The report by the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development said the share of wages in total income fell in most developed and in many developing countries in the past 30 years, such as 5 percentage points or more in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States and by 10 percentage points or more in France, Germany and Ireland.“In seve