South Korea’s private equity firm JKL Partners is poised to inject 80 billion won ($70.7 million) in Korean low-cost air carrier T‘way Air in April, a filing showed Wednesday. JKL Partners was offered the opportunity to buy some 31.8 million convertible preferred shares in T’way’s capital increase, so that T’way Air can use its proceeds to pay the cost of airplane lease and maintenance. The securities offering plan to the third-party investor gained board approval

South Korea said Wednesday it plans to release 100,000 tons of reserved rice next month as the long rainy season last year coupled with major typhoons reduced output of the grain. The country plans to release the new batch of rice harvested in 2019 into the market in April, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs. South Korea already released 170,000 tons of reserved rice into the market over the first two months of 2021. The move comes in line with the government's

South Korea said Wednesday it plans to expand monitoring on the safety of pet food products as the size of the market has been growing sharply in sync with the rising number of pet owners. Under the plan, South Korea plans to carry out an investigation of 650 pet food products available in the market and ban sales of those with high residue of 73 designated hazardous elements, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. The country also plans to revamp its check list of c

South Korea kicked off a virtual trade exhibition for health care businesses Wednesday to beef up the exports of biohealth products amid the new coronavirus pandemic. Around 500 overseas buyers plan to participate in the Global Medical Equipment Plaza Online (GMEP) 2021, which doubled from the previous year's event, according to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA). The virtual trade meeting will run through March 26. Some 200 South Korean health care companies will join the eve

South Korean vaccine maker SK Bioscience Co. is set to go public on the local bourse this week and will probably emerge as the top bio pick by investors amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to brokerage houses. The offering price of SK Bioscience, the pharmaceutical unit of major conglomerate SK Group, was set at 65,000 won ($57.47) per share for its market debut Thursday. Brokerage houses predicted that the maker of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccines will jump upon its market debut, probably

South Korean stocks opened lower Wednesday amid rising uncertainties ahead of the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 10.09 points, or 0.33 percent, to 3,057.08 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks fell as investors continued to wonder if the Federal Reserve would step up to sooth market concerns of the earlier-than-expected post-pandemic inflation. Top cap Samsung Electronics lost 0.24 percent, and No. 2 c

Sales of electric vehicles in South Korea nose-dived more than 45 percent in the first two months of the year amid a lack of subsidy policies and customer expectations for rollouts of new models, data showed Wednesday. A total of 2,444 EVs were sold in Asia's fourth-largest economy in the January-February period, down 45.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the industry ministry and carmakers. Sales of Hyundai Motor Co.'s Kona EV sank more than 29 percent on-year to 175 un

South Korea's energy consumption dropped for the second consecutive year in 2020 due to an economic slowdown sparked by the coronavirus outbreak, a report showed Wednesday. The country's overall energy consumption stood at 222.1 million tons of oil equivalent (TOEs) last year, down 4 percent from a year earlier according to the report from the Korea Energy Economics Institute. The decrease follows a 0.6 percent on-year decline in 2019, which was the first annual drop in 10 years. Last year's

South Korea reported job losses for the 12th straight month in February as the new coronavirus outbreak continued to deal a blow to the job market, data showed Wednesday. The number of employed people reached 26.3 million last month, 473,000 fewer than a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. The country has reported job losses every month since March 2020 due to the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. It marked the longest streak of job losses since April 1999, when

A sanction committee under the Financial Supervisory Service over the Optimus scandal will likely have to delay its upcoming meeting as one executive facing punitive measures has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to officials Tuesday. NH Investment & Securities’ chief executive Jeong Young-chae tested positive for the virus and is being placed under quarantine, according to the company. Jeong was to attend the third round of the sanction committee’s meeting on Mar

Coupang founder Kim Bom-suk has divested his stake in the South Korean e-commerce giant worth $42 million, a filing showed Tuesday. According to the disclosure, Kim converted his Class B stocks into 1.2 million Class A common shares and then on Monday sold all the shares of the same class for the offering price of $35 apiece, which was fixed last week. Coupang‘s Class B shares give Kim 29 times more voting rights than Class A shares. A prospectus filed to the US Securities and Exchange C

For a 36-year-old Seoulite surnamed Kang, who owns her own home in the capital, following the trends in apartment transaction prices is far from a happy experience. Over the past year, the value of Kang’s apartment rose by more than twice her annual salary. She has no plans to cash out the property anytime soon. But she may have to pay more taxes than she did last year because her house is worth over 900 million won ($796,073), according to the government’s appraisal. “Som

The government is scurrying to implement new rules on users and operators of digital coins to effectively oversee the industry, which has been growing at a fast pace on the back of increasing appetite for risky assets. Starting from March 25, new penalty standards for cryptocurrency exchanges that infringe anti-money laundering rules will be implemented, according to the Financial Services Commission on Tuesday. Fines will be imposed on virtual asset service providers that fail to report s

Members of the Bank of Korea's (BOK) monetary policy board saw growing worries over inflation, but they said it was too early to discuss normalization of monetary policy, minutes from their latest meeting showed Tuesday. In the last rate-setting meeting on Feb. 25, the seven-member board unanimously voted to keep the policy rate at a record low of 0.5 percent to support an economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. According to the minutes, some board members suggested that the BOK needs

South Korean stocks finished higher Tuesday on optimism for a quick economic recovery in major economies. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 21.46 points, or 0.7 percent, to close at 3,067.17 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 1.1 billion shares worth some 12.8 trillion won ($11.3 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 558 to 279. Foreigners sold a net 28 billion won while institutions purchased a net 250 billi