An 11-member brokerage syndicate underwriting an initial public offering of LG Energy Solution next week is expected to raise a whopping 89 billion won ($75 million) in management fees following the record-breaking retail bids, made on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to regulatory filings on Thursday. The fees account for 0.7 percent of 12.7 trillion won that the electric vehicle battery maker is expected to raise from a total of 42.5 million shares priced at 300,000 won apiece. Separately, th

Kakao, one of South Korea’s two largest internet giants along with Naver, is seen as holding back its plans to float shares of key subsidiaries in listings, amid looming market disappointment over controversial sell-offs by executives. Earlier this month, CEOs of Kakao Pay and KakaoBank were accused of driving down stock prices with sell-offs that critics say should not have taken place right after their listings when their shares ran high. This prompted regulators to vow greater protecti

OECD index for Korea’s economic activities falls for 5 consecutive months

South Korean stocks rebounded Thursday on investors' move to buy oversold stocks after the recent stock plunge and China's interest rate cut. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) rose 20.4 points, or 0.72 percent, to close at 2,862.68 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 388 million shares worth some 8.7 trillion won ($7.3 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 709 to 174. Institutions bought a net 106 billion won and r

The head of South Korea's financial regulator said Thursday he is seeking to ease restrictions on financial companies' investment in fintech firms as part of efforts to expand support for the fast-growing industry. Jeong Eun-bo, chief of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), made the remarks in a meeting with leading officials of the fintech industry, saying his agency will push for the enactment of a relevant law on the matter. "We will push for the enactment of the so-called fintech

South Korea’s KB Kookmin Bank opened a branch in Singapore, which will work as its gateway into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and global markets, the firm said Thursday. The launch of the branch came eight months after KB Kookmin was granted a license to operate a wholesale bank from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, according to the firm. The new branch’s key focuses are retail, corporate and investment banking and will partially deal with brokerage services. Wi

Foreign currency deposits at banks in South Korea declined in December as companies reduced foreign currency holdings for investment, central bank data showed Thursday. According to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK), outstanding foreign currency-denominated deposits held by residents came to $97.27 billion as of end-December, down $5.75 billion from a month earlier. Residents include local citizens, foreigners staying here for more than six months and foreign companies. The data excludes i

South Korea has more room for improving productivity with a wider use of working from home, given its high internet connectivity and long commuting time caused by chronic traffic jams, a central bank report showed Thursday. According to the report by the Bank of Korea (BOK), the number of people using the working-from-home system soared to 1.14 million, 4.2 percent of those employed, last year, from about 95,000 people, or a mere 0.3 percent, tallied in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic brok

Jobs provided by the government and state-run companies grew by the largest-ever amount in 2020, as the number of public servants rose and state-arranged jobs for vulnerable people increased amid the pandemic, data showed Thursday. A total of 2.77 million people were employed in 2020 by the public sector, up 164,000, or 6.3 percent, from the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea. Jobs offered by the public sector are positions in central and provincial governments, social

The number of layer chickens raised in South Korea rebounded in the fourth quarter from a year earlier as it gradually recovered from the impact of the bird flu outbreak, data showed Thursday. The number of layer chickens came to 72.61 million in the October-December period, up 33,000 from the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea. The tally compared with an on-year fall of 3.13 million in the third quarter. It was also up 1.89 million from three months earlier as chicken

South Korean investors' holdings of foreign securities touched a new all-time high in 2021 on an overseas investment boom, data showed Thursday. Local investors had held overseas stocks and bonds worth $100.59 billion as of end-2021, up 39.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Securities Depository (KSD). Of the total, South Koreans' ownership of overseas stocks came to $77.91 billion, 65.5 percent more than a year earlier. The value of US stocks held by South Ko

South Korean stocks opened slightly higher Thursday as investors sought to buy oversold stocks after the recent stock plunge. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) rose 4.19 points, or 0.15 percent, to 2,846.47 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks edged up after a choppy start, following the key stock index's four-day losing streak. Steel and chemical heavyweights led the gain. Steelmaker Posco added 2.64 percent, battery maker LG Chem advanced 1.23 percent, and SK In

South Korea's producer prices remained almost unchanged in December as an increase of prices in the service sector was offset by falling prices of manufactured goods, central bank data showed Thursday. The producer price index, a major barometer of consumer inflation, stood at 113.22 last month, compared with 113.23 the previous month, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). It is the first time since October 2020 that the figure marked an on-month decline. Compared wit

South Korean stocks extended their losing streak to a fifth consecutive session Wednesday as rising US yields and rate hike forecast weighed on investor sentiment. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. After a choppy session, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) declined 21.96 points, or 0.77 percent, to close at 2,842.28 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 457 million shares worth some 9.6 trillion won ($8.1 billion), with losers far outnumbering gainers 653

Over 114 trillion won ($95.5 billion) in cash deposits from about 4.4 million retail investors flowed into a mega initial public offering by LG Energy Solution during a two-day subscription that ended Wednesday, reflecting explosive interest in the company’s market debut. The world’s second-largest battery maker has already attracted the highest amount of deposits from a total of 1,988 domestic and foreign institutional investors, which pledged some 15,000 trillion won in total to b