Korean Air will sell five of its planes to US aerospace firm Sierra Nevada Corporation, the airline said in an exchange filing on Wednesday. Sierra Nevada recently won a $13 billion US Air Force contract to develop a successor to the E-4B Nightwatch, known as the Doomsday plane due to its ability to survive a nuclear war and act as a command and control centre during emergencies. Sierra Nevada did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Korean Air planes being sold are four-engined

Takeshi Idezawa, CEO of the Tokyo-based LY Corp., the operator of the messaging app Line, said Wednesday that the company has requested its key shareholder Naver to sell stakes in an apparent move to cut the Korean firm’s control over its management. The decision comes as Naver is under growing pressure from the Japanese government to shed its ownership in Line, the popular app the Korean firm has nurtured over the past 13 years. Currently, almost 70 percent of the Japanese population is k

Government policy to focus more on creating favorable environment for large-scale investments

South Korea’s pharmaceutical companies are accelerating the development of anti-obesity drugs to take share in the rapidly growing market, which is estimated to hit $100 billion by 2030. Hanmi Pharmaceutical is one of a few Korean drug companies that have been pushing ahead with their clinical trials for homegrown anti-obesity drugs. The drug company is currently expected to be the first Korean company that will launch a homegrown anti-obesity drug. “Hanmi Pharmaceutical is the only

New York-listed e-commerce giant Coupang reported Wednesday that its sales soared to a record high of $7.1 billion in the first quarter of this year, but operating profits were almost cut in half largely due to the losses from Farfetch, the luxury shopping platform it acquired last year. According to its earnings report earlier in the day, its revenue reached $7.1 billion in the January-March period, up 23 percent from a year ago. Its operating profits were $40 million, which compared to $167.

South Korean online-only lender Kakao Bank announced Wednesday that its net profit hit a record high of 111.2 billion won ($81.44 million) in the first quarter, a 9 percent increase from the previous year. Operating profit for the same period was 148.4 billion won, up 8.8 percent from last year. The bank said it achieved balanced growth across various business sectors, driven by a steady increase in customer numbers and the successful launch of products and services. Total customer numbers grew

Korea will put Naver’s interest in the forefront in coming up with countermeasures to cope with the Korean IT firm’s conundrum of the Japanese government’s pressure on Naver to give up its ownership in Line, a leading messaging app in Japan that Naver has fostered for over a dozen years, the Korean science minister said Wednesday. “Regarding Japan’s administrative guidance of (Line), we have been continuously and closely cooperating with Naver to guarantee the maxim

A report showed Wednesday that women account for only 3.2 percent of all inside directors at the biggest companies in South Korea. There are 787 inside directors and 850 outside directors on the boards of the 30 largest South Korean conglomerates and their 298 affiliates according to the local market analysis firm Leaders Index. There are 174 female outside directors and 25 female inside directors, each accounting for 20.5 percent and 3.2 percent of the respective totals. All 30 conglomerates ha

Korean logistics companies are boosting their investment in their facilities to cope with the country’s increasing direct purchases from China, industry sources said Tuesday. According to Korea Customs Service, the number of items purchased through Chinese online shopping platforms last year reached 88.8 million, up 70.3 percent on-year. The combined value of those transactions also came to some 3.3 trillion won ($2.43 billion), up 121.2 percent from a year ago. The number of monthly activ

Korean chipmakers dominating HBM market are skeptical about China catching up

South Korea's National Pension Service will pour a record 1.5 trillion won ($1.1 billion) in alternative assets managed by external managers this year, the largest such allocation in the fund's history. The majority of the sum, 1 trillion won, will go to private equity funds, according to a recent announcement by the NPS, marking a 25 percent increase from the previous year. In 2023, the NPS allocated 800 billion won to private equity, with Macquarie Asset Management, IMM Private Equit

Mirae Asset Global Investments, a leading asset manager based in Korea, has introduced a high dividend yield exchange-traded fund to the mainland Chinese market through cross-border trading with Hong Kong, the firm announced Tuesday. The Global X Hang Seng High Dividend Yield ETF, operated by the asset manager’s ETF arm in Hong Kong, was set up for trading on China’s Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Monday. The ETF tracks shares with high dividend yields on the

Korean energy firm begins operation at production site in Cartersville, Georgia

To address increasing global concerns regarding ethical sourcing and environmental responsibility, domestic battery material manufacturer Posco Future M released its third Responsible Minerals Activity Report on Tuesday. The publication is a part of the company’s efforts to establish a sustainable supply chain for materials used in battery production, specifically the cathode and anode segments. It marks the continuation of a commitment initiated in 2021 when Posco Future M first outlined

Korean Air hosted a Family Day event at its headquarters in Seoul over the weekend, welcoming employees and their families from Saturday to Monday. After a hiatus due to the pandemic, the firm's annual tradition resumed last year. This year's gathering saw some 13,000 attendees, including Delta Air Lines employees stationed at Korean Air's headquarters as part of their joint venture partnership. The hangar was transformed into a theme park to offer a variety of activities, compa