South Korea’s five newly licensed duty-free stores in Seoul are seeing steady improvements in their daily revenue, with HDC Shilla and Hanwha in the lead so far, the companies said Tuesday.　HDC Shilla said its new duty-free store in Yongsan has been racking up some 1.1 billion won ($925,000) in daily sales since April. It opened on Mar. 25 as the first of the five new stores permitted to begin business this year.Hotel Shilla president and CEO Lee Boo-jin looks around Shilla I’Park Duty Free stor

Many consumer-centric technologies are disrupting the automotive industry, which will no longer be a monopoly of traditional carmakers in the near future.Cars are the new frontier for tech companies and the distinct 200-year-old line between different industries is slowly fading away. With companies spreading out from their core business, many industry insiders have concluded that “anyone who can create the best cars will create them.”As a result, existing competition is growing fierce. Moreover

Korean chaebol -- family-controlled conglomerates -- are rushing to capitalize on K-pop which is steadily gaining global popularity. One example is LS Group. Koo Bon-woong, the grandson of late LG Cable & System honorary chairman Koo Tae-hoe and eldest son of LS-Nikko Copper chairman Koo Ja-hong, recently invested in a new K-pop related Korean venture firm called My Music Taste.                                                Formation 8 cofounder Koo Bon-woongThe younger Koo is already well-know

The Korean-born American founders of global retail chain Forever 21 known for their rags-to-riches story appear to be facing a crisis.The New York Post reported late last month that Forever 21 was “late paying its bills,” which spooked business partners and banks as the company recently took the “unusual step of closing two massive California stores.”A Forever 21 store in Beijing, China (Bloomberg)The founders of Forever 21 are married couple Chang Do-won and Chang Jin-sook, who are often held u

The smooth power transfer among cousins stems back to the harmonious relations among their fathers who founded the LS Group in 2003 after splitting from LG Group

Korea’s highest salary earner last year was Samsung Electronics vice chairman and CEO Kwon Oh-hyun, who received 14.9 billion won ($12.8 million) -- about 40 million won a day. While Kwon’s salary is considered colossal even among Korean CEOs, The Korea Herald Superrich Team found a discrepancy when comparing the salaries of top CEOs at home and abroad by analyzing information released by the Financial Supervisory Service, Forbes magazine, and Equilar, an information provider of executive compen

Adrian Cheng, 37-year-old scion of the world’s largest jewelry retailer, said he will use his company’s extensive retail network in mainland China to help boost domestic sales of Korean cosmetic products.The grandson of Hong Kong’s billionaire tycoon Cheng Yu-tung, who founded business group Chow Tai Fook Enterprise, decided last year to invest 18 billion won ($16 million) in Korean firm It’s Skin via the group’s subsidiary New World Development Company, where he serves as executive vice chairma

Money-losing Hyundai Merchant Marine and Hanjin Shipping have recently filed for creditor-led rehabilitation programs. There is another thing in common between the two shipping giants. They were led by female leaders, who suddenly transformed into chairwomen from housewives after the deaths of their husbands. Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun, 61, who stepped down from the HMM board of directors in March, began to run the conglomerate in 2003 when her husband Chung Mong-hun -- fifth son of

Located amid lush fields and green trees in the city of Concord, New Hampshire, St Paul’s School is highly coveted in the United States and also a chaebol favorite.With 160 years of tradition, it boasts notable alumni including members of the wealthy Vanderbilt family, Nobel laureates and current U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. In the hopes of honing the talents of their children and developing influential connections, superrich families from all across the world have honed in on the school.

Chairman’s firm and consistent focus on product quality and overseas production creates world’s fast growing auto giant

Increasing global demand for K-beauty products improved the industry’s performance last year, helping owners of Korean cosmetics firms earn large cash dividends. Of the top 10 cosmetics firms listed on the stock market, eight chose to pay dividends according to the Financial Supervisory Service last Thursday. While returning company profits to shareholders by paying high cash dividends has its merits, it is also criticized for increasing the wealth of owner families. AmorePacific Group chairman

The mid-tier, family-controlled conglomerate seeks to scale up with listings of key business units

No one would have thought that superrich NFL owner Kim Pegula had a sad past. The co-owner of high-profile professional American football teams -- along with her husband Terry Pegula -- has an estimated combined net worth of a whopping $4 billion, according to Forbes. Kim Pegula (left) and Terry Pegula, owners of NFL Buffalo Sabres and Buffalo BillsHowever, Kim started her life penniless. Abandoned in front of a police station in Seoul, Kim became an orphan when she was five years old. Nonethele

The 2016 Forbes World’s Billionaires list released last month includes 31 Koreans after calculating their personal wealth -- value of listed and unlisted stocks, cash holdings, real estate and artworks. Most Koreans who made it to the definitive list of the world’s wealthiest people are well-known heads and family members of chaebol such as Samsung, Hyundai, Lotte and SK. However, it also includes nine unfamiliar names.While it may seem strange that these superrich have managed to avoid the publ

The recent fuss involving misbehavior of Daelim Group‘s Lee Hae-wook has raised the public attention to how the relatively little-known third-generation scion of the family-controlled conglomerate became heir last year. Lee, vice chairman of Daelim Industrial, the flagship construction unit of the group, has exposed the group to reputation risk since his repeated abuse of personal chauffeurs was revealed last month. His prompt public apology for his misdeeds at the firm’s shareholders meeting on