Kumho Asiana Group, the parent company of South Korea's No. 2 air carrier, said Tuesday it will buy Kumho Buslines Co., its former intercity bus transportation arm, for 415 billion won (US$375.1 million), as it takes a step closer to restoring itself to the conglomerate it was before its liquidity crisis.   Kumho Terminal, a subsidiary of Kumho Asiana Group, will take over a 100 percent stake in Kumho Buslines from a private equity firm led by IBK Securities Co. and KStone Co., which currently o

Brokerage firms’ collective loans to investors, which are stock investment-oriented credit, reached the highest level this month on the KOSDAQ market amid the bullish secondary bourse and record-low bank interest rates.In a report released by Korea Financial Investment Association on Tuesday, the credit-based investments reached the risky amount of 3.97 trillion won ($3.64 billion) as of May 20. This accounts for about 3.5 percent of the entire capitalization of freely traded stocks on the tech-

Failing to find viable buyers, the debt-ridden South Korean smartphone-maker Pantech has decided to end court receivership. The local smartphone-maker, which once ranked third in the market by sales, came under court protection in August last year and has tried to find legitimate buyers since then.Three rounds of bids held over the past months came to no avail.“Despite our 10-month long efforts, we could not find an appropriate bidder with a right evaluation of Pantech,” the company said in a st

CJ O Shopping, the TV home shopping unit of CJ Group, announced Tuesday it has joined hands with a Mexican multimedia company to launch a new home shopping channel in the Central American country.The home shopping firm and Mexico-based Televisa will together invest a total of $23 million to newly establish Televisa CJ Grand ― which will oversee the running of the CJ Grand Shopping channel in Mexico.The channel will become Mexico’s first 24-hour TV home shopping channel, aimed at capturing the at

While the South Korean government is facing its second international arbitration under the investor-state dispute settlement system, civic groups are demanding that the details should be made public as they could cost several billion dollars of taxpayers’ money.The groups claimed that the government not only kept the first Lone Star arbitration process under wraps, but also hid from the public a lawsuit filed by an Abu Dhabi state-owned company. The claimed amounts for both cases are $5 trillion

South Korea plans to push for financial deregulation to make it easier for people to transfer money across borders without going through banks, the government said Sunday.The move aims to allow securities firms, insurers and most importantly FinTech companies to handle transfers that can help lower fees and benefit ordinary consumers, the finance ministry said. The expansion of money transfer services, which are currently restricted to banks, is also expected to help scale back the often complic

South Korean stocks are expected to continue to build up gains next week as foreign investors hold on to their buying binge of local stocks amid improving global liquidity circumstances, analysts said Saturday.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) closed at 2,146.1 points on Friday, up 1.9 percent from a week earlier, gaining in four out of five trading sessions this week.The key index got off to a strong start as foreign investors scooped up shares amid eased volatility in the

A growing number of South Koreans have invested in the Chinese stock market after a bourse link scheme began six months ago, but rising concern over a bubble has made them rethink their next move, market watchers said Friday.   South Korean investors traded 6.87 trillion won ($6.26 billion) worth of Chinese shares for six months after the Shanghai-Hong Kong stock connect was launched on Nov. 17 to allow foreigners to directly invest in mainland Chinese stocks, according to the data compiled by t

Financial Services Commission chairman Yim Jong-yong said on Thursday that the sell-off method for the state-run Woori Bank should be more diverse.“The sell-off method must be diversified, unlike the old system that merely involves bridging the buyer and Woori for a certain amount of premium ― this is not desirable,” Yim said at a press luncheon in central Seoul. After diversifying the sell-off option on market-based research, the agenda should be put to public discussion, Yim added. The regulat