CJ Group, the country’s largest food company, is bidding to take over Japan’s biggest food-additive maker, Hayashibara, reportedly in consortium with Japanese private equity firm Unison Capital.CJ confirmed the bidding scheduled for July but declined to comment on its consortium with Unison capital.Acquiring Hayashibara is part of CJ Group’s plan to expand into amino acids and other biochemical fo

Asiana Airlines opened two new routes to Vietnam from Busan, while Korean Air announced that the Airbus A380 will go into service on June 17.On Thursday, Asiana Airlines began operating daily flights to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam from Busan. Asiana Airlines chief executive Yoon Young-doo (left) poses with pilots at the ceremony marking the opening of the Busan-Ho Chi Minh City

Hyundai Heavy Industries set sights Thursday on the top three spots in the booming global robot market with its new plant ready to enter full-swing production.The world’s top shipbuilder said it has remodeled and expanded existing production lines three times at its headquarter in Ulsan, a major industrial port city on the southeast coast of Korea, which began in September to meet surging demand f

Koo tells staff to ceaselessly search for new opportunitiesLG Group chairman Koo Bon-moo touted the importance of creation and innovation, as the single most effective way to lead the market, the Seoul-based company said Thursday.“Constantly creating new things is the only way we can lead the markets,” Koo said at LG’s 19th session of the company’s gathering to spearhead innovative business held M

British American Tobacco Korea announced Thursday that it will introduce “Dunhill SWITCH” cigarettes on the local market on June 7.The Dunhill SWITCH, which will be priced at 3,000 won ($2.8), comes in packaging with the “RELOC” inner wrapping, the company said.According to the company, which holds the patent on the inner wrapping method, RELOC is a re-sealable double cover that provides additiona

Philip Morris International Inc., the multinational tobacco group, said Wednesday it has appointed Chong Il-woo as managing director for the Korean unit.Chong, 49, will oversee management and orchestrate the unit’s strategy and business, the company said. Chong Il-wooPrior to the new post, Chong headed the Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Indochina operation for the U.S.-based conglomerate. He st

Ho-Am Foundation on Wednesday held an award ceremony to extend the Ho-Am Prize to four individuals and one institution for their contribution to improving human lives and promoting public welfare. This year’s prizes went to Professor Ha Taek-jip of the University of Illinois for science, Professor Thomas Lee of Standford University for engineering, Professor Augustine Choi of Harvard Medical Schoo

Samsung SDI, on Wednesday vowed to become a global energy firm catering to future needs for recyclable energy marking the official takeover of the solar battery business from its sister firm, Samsung Electronics. With the $147.6 million swap, SDI said it will target annual revenues of 13 trillion won ($12.1 billion) in 2015 and up to 35 trillion won in sales by 2020. More than half of the sales, a

Park Se-pill (Park Hyun-koo/The Korea Herald)The fabricated cloning research by Hwang Woo-suk in 2006 remains a painful memory for Koreans, who had taken pride of their nation’s edge in a field that promised to transform medicine. No one agonized more over the fraud case than Park Se-pill, Korea’s top stem-cell researcher. Research in the area was brought to a virtual standstill as the government

LG Electronics is used to being No. 2. A powerful global electronics brand in its own right, the Seoul-based company has not made it to the highest of peaks. This seemed to be all right, however, as long it could rub shoulders with its top-tier rivals. But a raging “smart war” in the mobile industry changed all that, and LG Electronics is in bad shape in that sector. Koo Bon-joon, vice chairman an