Hyundai Card, the credit card unit of Hyundai Motor Group, is seeking underwriters and advisers for a proposed initial public offering, its spokesperson said Tuesday. “We have approached domestic and foreign financial institutions as part of the listing process,” the firm’s spokesperson Ha Young-jin told The Korea Herald.  “But right now it’s difficult to say whether we will proceed with the plan. An IPO would be an opportunity to expand our capital and bolster

The ongoing slump facing South Korea and the rest of the world is widely expected to continue for some time, but the duration and degree of its impact will largely depend on how the trade conflict between the world's two largest economies will end, the chief of South Korea's central bank said Tuesday."The growth of the global economy is slowing down," Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol told the parliamentary finance committee at the start of its annual audit. "Such a slowdown is expec

Foreign investors continued to scoop up local shares and bonds in the first seven months of the year, the central bank said Tuesday, possibly reflecting their confidence in the country's strong economic fundamentals despite a steady decline in exports and sluggish growth.In the January-July period, foreigners purchased a net US$8.71 billion worth of local stocks while also purchasing a net $16.43 billion worth of local bonds, the Bank of Korea said in a report submitted to the parliamentary fina

The number of companies unable to service their debts with earnings rose from a year earlier in 2018, posing a threat to the country's financial and economic stability, central bank data showed Tuesday.According to a report submitted by the Bank of Korea for parliamentary audit, the number of the so-called marginal companies came to 3,236 last year, up from 3,112 a year earlier.The number represents 14.2 percent of 22,869 companies here that are subject to external audit. Marginal firms refer to

South Korea's current account remained in the black for the fourth consecutive month in August, but its surplus narrowed sharply from a year earlier amid a steady decline in exports, central bank data showed Tuesday.The country's current account surplus came to $5.27 billion in the month, compared with a $8.55 billion surplus in the same month last year and a $6.95 billion surplus a month earlier, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea.The goods account surplus has been more than h

　South Korea ranked 20th out of 53 countries surveyed by German insurer Allianz Group in terms of per capita financial assets last year, according to a report from the group.　According to the recently released “Allianz Global Wealth Report,” Koreans’ financial assets stood at an average of 39 million won ($33,000) per person in 2018, slightly up from a year earlier.　Last year, the United States topped the list with per capita financial assets of 240 million won, followed by Swi

The average sale price of real estate in redeveloped apartment complexes in Seoul has soared more than 50 percent over the past four years, data showed Monday.According to data submitted by the state-run Korea Housing & Urban Guarantee Corporation to the parliamentary land committee, the average sale price per pyeong for reconstructed apartments stood at 31.5 million won ($26,345) as of this year. A pyeong is a unit of area used in real estate measuring, equivalent to 3.3 square meters. This

South Korea’s financial watchdog said Monday it will start a comprehensive audit of Shinhan Financial Group and its commercial banking unit this month. According to a Shinhan Bank spokesperson, the Financial Supervisory Service sent a request last month for documents, ahead of a change in management next year.  “We have received a request for a comprehensive inspection from the FSS slated around the end of the month,” the spokesperson told The Korea Herald, without elabora

Retail investors’ short selling transactions in the third quarter accounted for merely 1 percent of the total transaction volume, according to Korea Exchange data Monday.Short selling is a high-risk trading strategy when investors borrow shares to sell them on the market, in order to buy them back later at a lower price. The investors hope to profit by returning them to the lender at a later date. According to the nation’s main bourse operator, short selling by retail investors

South Korea’s tech giant Samsung Electronics is expected to see its third quarter earnings come in well over market consensus, according to forecast by Korea Investment & Securities. Next year’s operating profit will be even greater, the securities firm predicted in its report.The revenue of Samsung in the latest quarter will be around 65.8 trillion won and its operating profit sime 7.4 trillion, each exceeding earlier predictions by 5 percent and 9 percent, respectively, the rep

SEJONG -- A variety of polls show that the public disapproval rating for President Moon Jae-in now outstrips his approval rating.According to a survey from Gallup Korea, the portion of respondents who expressed negative opinion toward the president, exceeded the supporters for him for the sixth consecutive week since August.In the pollster’s latest survey, conducted on Oct. 1-2, 51 percent of the 1,000 citizens polled expressed disapproval of Moon’s performance, while the approval ra

South Korea marked the steepest drop in export volume so far this year among the world’s top 10 exporters, data showed.Korea’s export slowdown was especially noticeable in July, due partly to the slowdown in overall world trade volume and the drop in prices of semiconductors and petroleum products. Exports to China, in particular, dropped significantly by 16.6 percent from the previous month.  The month coincides with when Japan started to impose export curbs on key materials cr

The Korea Herald is publishing a regular contribution series written by senior investment strategists at Standard Chartered Group Wealth Management. -- Ed.China’s economic growth has clearly slowed amid escalating US-China trade tensions. The weakness in industry and business investment appears to be spilling over to consumption, as seen in the recent deceleration in retail sales. The sluggish macro data highlights three areas of concern. First, producer prices entered deflation territory

China's political dispute with Taiwan may add to regional risks created by protest rallies in Hong Kong that could further undermine South Korea's exports to its neighbors, a central bank report suggested Sunday.South Korean exports have dipped for 10 consecutive months since December amid the prolonged trade dispute between the United States and China, the world's largest importers of South Korean goods."Considering the country's close financial and trade relations with the countries, a ch

Seniors are the chief breadwinners for South Korea's poorest households, with such family units generally having less than one member holding a steady job, data showed Saturday.According to the data from Statistics Korea, the average age of the chief breadwinners for households making up the bottom 20 percent of the income tier stood at 63.8 years between 2003 and 2019.  Asia's fourth-largest economy became an aged society -- one in which 14 percent of the population is over 65 -- in 2017,