South Korea's National Pension Service decided Tuesday to oppose LG Chem Ltd.'s plan to spin off its battery business at a shareholders' meeting later this week. In September, LG Chem, the country's leading chemical company, announced a plan to separate the battery business to better cope with growing demand for electric vehicle batteries. The company plans to hold a shareholders' meeting for approval on Friday. The state pension fund, the second-largest shareholder of LG Chem with a 10.2 pe

Two financial subsidiaries of South Korean mobile messenger giant Kakao are taking a step toward initial public offerings next year, picking up an additional underwriter and securing investments from a global private equity fund, according to local investment banking sources Tuesday. Kakao Pay, set for an IPO during the first half of next year, has chosen Goldman Sachs as one of its underwriters, while KB Securities selected an underwriter last month, the officials said. The details of the d

Amid escalating market interests on a grand succession scenario of late chairman’s shares to his children, data showed on Tuesday that his family may have received some 3 trillion won ($2.7 billion) in dividends since 2014. According to data compiled by the financial regulator Financial Supervisory Service, the total dividend paid to the chairman and his family between 2014 and 2019 reached 2.8 trillion won. When dividends paid to the family this year are added, the figure is highly likel

South Korean shares closed lower Tuesday, falling for the second straight session, amid concerns of a global resurgence in COVID-19 cases and growing uncertainties over the US presidential election. The Korean won continued to rise against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 13.07 points, or 0.56 percent, to close at 2,330.84. Trading volume was moderate at 643.2 million shares worth 9.9 trillion won ($8.8 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 555

Financial Services Commission Chairman Eun Sung-soo on Tuesday stressed the importance of consumer protection in the coronavirus era amid surging financial investment activities by retail investors taking advantage of ultralow interest rates. “Consumer protection is more important than ever as retail investors have increasingly invested in high-profit financial products amid the low interest rate environment triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Financial Services Commission C

   Yoo Myung-soon, incumbent interim chief executive officer of Citibank Korea, was officially tapped to lead the bank as the first female chief to lead the US lender’s local unit, officials said Tuesday. The South Korean subsidiary of the New York-based bank held a general meeting of stockholders and the board of directors early in the morning to approve and confirm Yoo’s appointment. Yoo, who previously served as the bank’s senior executive vice president, was

BOK calls for prudence amid uncertainties; finance minister expresses hope for recovery

Hanwha Asset Management said Tuesday its wholly owned Chinese unit has been granted a private fund management license for mainland China. A PFM license, approved by the Asset Management Association of China, allows foreign asset managers to create and sell funds investing in onshore stocks and bonds in China to local institutional and wealthy investors. This comes four years after South Korea’s third-largest asset management company with over 93 trillion won ($82 billion) in assets unde

Doosan Mobility Innovation (DMI), a producer of portable fuel cell power packs for drones, said Tuesday it will make inroads overseas to expand its presence in the power cable-checking system. To that end, DMI signed a preliminary deal with the Korea Electric Power Research Institute (KEPRI), a R&D subsidiary of the state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO), the company said. Under the deal, both sides plan to share their patent technologies and sales networks, and KEPRI's automated p

Corporate ownership of land in South Korea has been on a steady rise in recent years amid rising criticism of conglomerates' real estate investment, government data showed Tuesday. South Korean companies owned 6.953 square kilometers of land in 2019, up 1.7 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. It represents 11.3 percent of the country's total land area, up from a 10.1 percent share in 2012. Corporate land ownership had bee

Business sentiment in South Korea improved for November as domestic consumption expands on eased social distancing rules amid the coronavirus pandemic, a local think tank said Tuesday.   The business survey index (BSI) of the country's top 600 companies by sales came to 99.5 for November, up from the 84.6 for October, the Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI) said in a statement. "Eased social distancing rules have helped improve companies' profitability. But it's too early

Korea Zinc Inc on Tuesday reported its third-quarter net income of 170.4 billion won ($150.9 million), up 7 percent from a year earlier. The company said in a regulatory filing that operating profit for the July-September period rose 28 percent on-year to 267.4 billion won. Revenue increased 14.2 percent to 1.97 trillion won. The operating profit was 33.2 percent higher than the average estimate, according to the survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency. The esti

Samsung Card Co. on Tuesday reported its third-quarter net income of 128.1 billion won ($113.4 million), up 41.1 percent from a year earlier. The company said in a regulatory filing that it posted 173.4 billion won in operating profit for the quarter, compared with 120.1 billion won a year ago. Sales fell 10.4 percent to 772.1 billion won. The operating profit was 22.2 percent higher than the average estimate, according to the survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Ag

South Korean stocks opened lower Tuesday, tracking an overnight tumble on Wall Street amid concerns of a global resurgence in COVID-19 cases. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 7 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,336.91 in the first 15 minutes of trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 650.19 points, or 2.29 percent, to close at 27,685.38 on Monday (US time). The sharp drop came after countries saw a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases over the past few days, with Fran

Credit card loans in South Korea soared more than 34 percent in September as cash-strapped people scrambled to borrow from card firms amid a protracted coronavirus outbreak, industry data showed Tuesday. New loans extended by seven credit card firms -- Shinhan, KB Kookmin, Woori, Hana, Samsung, Hyundai and Lotte -- reached 4.2 trillion won ($3.7 billion) last month, up 34.3 percent from a year earlier. September represents the second-consecutive month of an on-year increase following an 11.7 p