Samsung Electronics has newly acquired stakes in five start-ups in the first quarter of this year as part of its ongoing efforts to elevate its software prowess.According to its quarterly report filed Monday, the five firms include SensiFree (15.09 percent), Unispectral (7.76 percent), Zyomed (2.17 percent), Keyssa (2.06 percent) and Bot Home Automation (0.99 percent).Samsung’s digital city complex in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province (Samsung Electronics)Even though the total spending, worth about 10 bi

U.S. private equity giant KKR & Co. is not keen on investing in ailing sectors in Korea including shipbuilding and steel, its CEO said Tuesday.“We’ve avoided, not just in Korea but around the world, investing in steel or shipbuilding or auto companies mainly because of cyclical nature of those businesses,” said George Roberts, cochairman and co-CEO of KKR, at a press conference in Seoul.George Roberts, cochairman and co-CEO of U.S. private equity firm KKR, speaks during a press conference in Seo

A bag of immensely popular potato snacks has become an unexpected game changer for local confectionery shares. Due to the success of the Honey Butter Chip, its manufacturer Haitai Confectionery and Foods has recovered the No. 2 spot in sales in the Korean confectionery market for the first time in five years. The firm’s share prices have also soared. Honey Butter chip (Yonhap)Haitai share prices closed at 53,800 won ($45.6) on Monday, a whopping 250 percent above its May 11 initial public offeri

Korea’s National Pension Service, which manages the world’s third-largest public pension fund after Japan and Norway, said it decided to increase the fund’s allocation in global investments in its mid-to-long-term fund investment portfolio.According to the plan finalized at the health minister-led fund management committee Monday, the combined proportion of investment in global equities, bonds and alternatives will increase to more than 35 percent of the total fund by 2021 from 24.3 percent as o

Two sons of the Kumho Group founder are likely start a lengthy legal battle over a merger between Kumho Terminal and Kumho & Co., a special purpose company set up by the elder brother to bring his empire back under his control.Kumho Petrochemical, run by younger brother Park Chan-koo, has recently sent an official request to Kumho Terminal to stop the merger with Kumho & Co., threatening to take legal action if it does not drop the case.Calling the deal a serious dereliction of duty, Kumho Petro

Green Cross Corp., a listed Korean pharmaceutical company, said Thursday that it plans issue three and five-year bonds worth some 100 billion won ($86 million) to finance its expansion overseas.The company’s bond underwriter NH Investment & Securities will evaluate the value of the bonds graded AA minus through a book building process next week. Its bond issues mark the first time for the company to raise funds in the local capital market.“The proceeds will be used for its expansion in the advan

South Korea’s conglomerate Lotte Group plans to buy a controlling stake in Hyundai Logistics, as it seeks to strengthen its delivery service to compete with other rival retailers.By the end of next week, eight affiliate companies of Lotte are set to hold board of directors meetings to get approval to buy an 88.8 percent stake in Hyundai Logistics in separate deals with an estimated value about 410 billion won ($351 million), according to Lotte officials. They expect to complete transactions with

The state-run Korea Development Bank said Tuesday that it will hand over its shares of Korea Aerospace Industries to the Export-Import Bank of Korea as part of an emergency financial relief.“We have decided to give our KAI shares to Eximbank,” KDB chief executive Lee Dong-geol told reporters ahead of a meeting with the Financial Services Commission on Tuesday.Korea Development Bank (Yonhap)KDB will hand over its 7.86 percent stake in KAI worth about 500 billion won ($426 million) to boost the ca

Talks between the E-Land Group and U.S. private equity giant KKR for the sale of local retail chain Kim’s Club are dragging on due to differences over price, local reports said Monday. E-Land is trying to sell its 37-branch hypermarket franchise to KKR for about 700 billion won, but the buyout firm is refusing to pay more than half of that price, Yonhap News reported, citing unnamed sources. Kim’s Club’s revenue last year was 660 billion won.“Negotiations are going smoothly,” E-Land said, in res

Caregen is not a typical Korean biotechnology company local investors are most familiar with.When it comes to biotech shares trading on the stock market, LG Life Sciences or Medy-Tox would generally come to mind. They are big biotech players, with the market cap of LG Life Sciences reaching over 1 trillion won ($858.8 million) on the benchmark KOSPI. Medy-Tox ranks 6th with nearly 3 trillion won in market cap on the tech-heavy KOSDAQ.Caregen’s booth at the World Congress of Dermatology in Vancou

Paradise, Korea’s largest foreigners-only casino operator, may show a gradual rebound in the latter half of the year, following strong headwinds faced by the country’s casino industry last year. The recovery of Paradise, which runs casinos in three major cities in Korea and on Jejudo Island, will continue at “a modest pace” this year and its new resort Paradise City, which is under construction in Incheon, will help the company to attract more VIPs from 2017, analysts said.The headquarters of Pa

No extra budget for corporate bailouts, finance minister says

First-quarter earnings reports show Shinhan Financial Group cementing its lead in the local banking sector, with a 30 percent increase in net profits. The group’s net profit in the January-March period stood at 771.4 billion won ($670.7 million), up 30.3 percent from the same period last year, the company said in a regulatory filing last week. From three months earlier, the tally marked a spike of 90.9 percent. “Improvements in banking, with a pickup in the net interest margin, had a big role (i

The Bank of Korea said Tuesday that it has appointed branches of KEB Hana Bank and Woori Bank in Shanghai, China, as clearing houses for won-yuan direct trading when the market opens. The envisioned currency market in Shanghai, scheduled to launch within the first half of this year, is Korea’s maiden step to allow offshore trading of its currency. China is Korea’s biggest trading partner, accounting for some 25 percent of its exports. Hana Financial Group (Yonhap)In Seoul, the won-yuan market op

Calls are growing for Korea to take bolder steps to support the economy, after a string of recent economic data indicated that Asia’s fourth-largest economy may be in for a rougher than expected ride this year. Private experts, increasingly doubtful of the government-projected recovery path for the economy, are slashing their forecasts for Korea’s economic growth in 2016. Local think tanks and foreign investment banks now predict that the economy, as measured by gross domestic product, will grow