Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said Saturday that it continues placing Hana Bank on its "negative watch" list as the lender is getting closer tocomplete the acquiring of Korea Exchange Bank.Hana Financial clinched a deal last November with U.S. buyout fund Lone Star Funds to buy South Korea's fifth-largest lender for 4.69 trillion won ($4.19 billion), which it said would be paid with internal

    Hyundai Motor Group, South Korea's top automaker, agreed to pay 4.96 trillion won (US$4.4 billion) to take over a 35 percent stake in the country's biggest builder,sources said Friday.    The price, agreed on with creditors of Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. (E&C), represents a 2.74 percent discount from the carmaker's bid price of 5.1 billion.     The price readjustment came after Hyun

The Seoul Central District Court on Friday ordered Hyundai Motor Group chairman Chung Mong-koo to pay 82.6 billion won ($73.1 million) in compensation to Hyundai Motor Co. for damages caused by irregular intra-group trading.Aside from Chung, former Hyundai Motor vice chairman Kim Dong-jin has been ordered to pay 8 billion won in compensation to the carmaker.The ruling follows three years after the

SK Telecom officially announced Friday that it will provide services for Apple’s iPhone 4 as early as next month, bringing an end to its rival KT Corp.’s 15-month long exclusive deal with Apple.The country’s leading mobile carrier SKT has not provided the details on when it will release the smartphone, however, it said it predicts more people will use the popular gadget, using its network and serv

South Korea's top conglomerate Samsung Group said Friday that it will establish a biomedical joint venture with U.S. drugmaker Quintiles Transnational Corp. as part of its efforts to find new growth engines. The joint venture will be capitalized at 300 billion won (US$265.5 million) and be established sometime in the first half of this year, Samsung said, adding work will begin on a plant in Inche

During his three years in office, President Lee Myung-bak is praised for achieving a rapid recovery from the financial crisis and boosting Korea’s economic clout in the world.His government has widened Korea’s free trade relations with major economies, mediated conflicts between traditional and emerging powers as the first host of G20 Summit and pulled off 6.1 percent growth last year to rank seco

Samsung Group established its first social enterprise in downtown Seoul on Thursday.The enterprise called the “Hope Network” will hire about 70 teachers and offer education services to about 1,000 children from underprivileged families, company officials said.It will start with the children registered in 30 different study rooms in the regions of Seoul and Gyeonggi Province.The instructors, who ha

The Korea Communications Commission said Thursday that it decided not to allow a fourth telecom to establish in the local market due to its lack of business strategies and funding abilities.During the weekly general meeting, commissioners of the state-run telecom regulator rejected Korea Mobile Internet’s proposed project plan to take position as the fourth telecom.The commission also turned down

SK Telecom, Korea’s top mobile operator, will start selling the iPhone next month in a break from Apple’s practice of selling the smartphones via a single distributor in each major market, industry source said Thursday.“Negotiations between SK Telecom and Apple are in the final stage,” said the source who is familiar with the matter. “As the negotiations are going smoothly, it is virtually decided

Renault Samsung Motors Co.’s sales staff recorded the highest average monthly sales figure among local carmakers, the company announced Thursday.According to the company, the 2,342 sales staff working at its 195 sales agents sold 155,696 last year, putting the average monthly sales figure per person at 5.4. The figure per sales agent came in at 65 units per month. The company did not disclose figu