The Korea Herald

Korean stocks open nearly flat

Aug 31, 2016

South Korean stocks started almost flat on Wednesday following Wall Street's overnight losses.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 0.25 points, or 0.01 percent, to 2,039.49 in the first 15 minutes of trading.In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 48.69 points, or 0.26 percent, at 18,454.30. Market observers attributed the declined to renewed concern about the timing of the US interest rate hike.On the Seoul bourse, large caps were mixed.Market behemoth Samsung Electro
Some 8% of listed firms suffer double whammy

Aug 31, 2016

Slightly over 8 percent of South Korea's major listed companies suffered a double whammy of operating and net losses in 2015 amid an economic slump, data showed Wednesday, sparking concern over their financial health.According to the data by the Korea 20000 Corporate Research Institute, 23 of the 273 listed companies with sales of at least 500 billion won ($447 million), or 8.4 percent, reported both operating and net losses last year.Of the total, 27 companies posted operating losses, while 55
[Monitor] Tax revenues from alcohol top 3 trillion won

Aug 30, 2016

Tax revenues from alcohol surpassed 3 trillion won in 2015 for the first time, according to the Finance Ministry and the National Tax Service. The government said it collected a total of 3.227 trillion won in the year, a 13. 2 percent increase from a year earlier.
Hanjin Shipping teeters on verge of court receivership

Aug 30, 2016

Creditors refuse to extend support; call Hanjin’s funding plan insufficient
KKR picks former LG man for Korea operations

Aug 30, 2016

One of KKR’s largest and most profitable investments was bottled beers produced by Korean Oriental Brewery. (Yonhap)US-based private equity fund KKR is hiring a former LG Electronics executive to run its Korea operations in a bid to ramp up its investments in Asia. Lim Hyoung-seok, a veteran consultant in investment and management solutions currently running Compass LKL in London, has been named as managing director of KKR Korea, the KKR Group announced on Tuesday. He will join Park Chung-ho, cu
Korea’s 2017 budget to focus on welfare, jobs

Aug 30, 2016

Government sets budget at 400.7 trillion won
Receivership looms larger over Hanjin Shipping

Aug 30, 2016

Creditors of Hanjin Shipping Co. on Tuesday decided not to extend additional support to the cash-strapped shipper, creditor sources said, triggering speculation about its possible court receivership.A creditor-led restructuring scheme for the largest South Korean shipper is set to end Sept. 4, which means the Hanjin Group company will be left with little choice but to file for receivership before the deadline.The creditors, led by the state-run Korea Development Bank, have been ratcheting up pre
Ratio of short-term debt to foreign reserves edges up in Q2

Aug 30, 2016

South Korea's ratio of short-term foreign debt to foreign reserves rose in the second quarter on increased borrowings by local banks, data showed Tuesday.The country's short-term external debt, with a maturity of one year or less, totaled $106.8 billion as of the end of June, up $2.7 billion from three months earlier, according to the data by the Bank of Korea.The end-June figure accounted for 27.3 percent of the country's total external debt, up 0.5 percentage point from the previous quarter, t
Korean stocks open higher on Wall Street gains

Aug 30, 2016

South Korean stocks opened higher Tuesday following Wall Street's overnight rise.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index climbed 13.51 points, or 0.66 percent, to 2,045.86 in the first 15 minutes of trading.The advance was apparently helped by gains in the New York stock exchange. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 107.59 points, or 0.58 percent, to 18,502.99, led by the banking sector being boosted by expectations that the Fed's interest-rate hikes will increase their lending margins
Corporate bond issuance falls on economic uncertainties

Aug 30, 2016

South Korean firms continued to reduce equity and bond issuance in July, government data showed Tuesday, amid lingering uncertainties over business conditions at home and abroad.The value of stocks and bonds issued during the month totaled 10.87 trillion won ($9.6 billion), down 7.8 percent from June, according to the Financial Supervisory Service. Equity and debt issuance fell by 38.1 percent and 4.9 percent, respectively."In general, local companies seem to be reluctant to make new investments
[Contribution] Financial order established by tackling illegal practices

Aug 29, 2016

The Financial Supervisory Service recently announced that 77 scammers were arrested in collaboration with police. The scammers pocketed approximately 150 billion won ($133.6 million) by cheating individual investors with the promise of high returns -- as much as 230 percent. Most fraud victims were housewives or retirees in their 60s or 70s. They pursued relatively higher interest rates in a low interest rate environment. Lured by the scammers, they ended up losing considerable amounts of money
KB Financial aids young people with disabilities

Aug 29, 2016

Participants of this year’s KB Hope Camp pose for photographs. (KB Financial Group)KB Financial Group continues to reach out to underprivileged youth through various annual programs. Some 120 young people with disabilities took part in a three-day camp earlier this month, a highlight of the group’s eight-month program that began in May to help participants plan for their future careers and build social skills. The KB Hope Camp offered job counselling, mock interviews and other activities. The p
Eugene Tech expects upward momentum from 3-D NAND memory

Aug 29, 2016

This is the 20th in a series of articles analyzing major companies by market capitalization traded on the tech-heavy Kosdaq market. – Ed As devices evolve quickly and consume more and more memory, chipmakers are rushing to expand their production of 3-D NAND, the latest high-density memory chip that stacks layers of storage cells like a skyscraper. Eugene Technology, a 1.1 billion won ($978,000) local wafer process tool provider, stands to benefit from the trend. Established in 2000, Eugene Tec
Corporate loans slightly increase in Q2

Aug 29, 2016

Loans extended by local lenders to businesses rose slightly at the end of June from three months earlier due to increased facility investments, central bank data showed Monday.Outstanding loans extended to local companies by financial institutions came to 970.7 trillion won ($863 billion) as of end-June, up 11.6 trillion won or 1.2 percent from the previous quarter, according to data from the Bank of Korea. (Yonhap)It marked decline from a 1.7-percent on-quarter gain in the previous quarter. Fro
Listed firms improve debt ratio: data

Aug 29, 2016

South Korean companies listed on the nation's main bourse have marginally improved their financial health this year, data showed Monday.The average debt ratio of 626 firms listed on the Kospi market that have available related data for last year came to 115.4 percent as of end-June, according to the Korea Exchange and the Korea Listed Companies Association. (KRX)It marks a 3.15 percentage-point drop from the end of 2015.The debt ratio, showing the proportion of total debt to total assets, is a k