Seoul-based buyout firm Hahn & Co. has filed a lawsuit against Namyang Dairy Products shareholders for failing to abide by a binding contract to sell their controlling shares to them, the nation’s second-largest private equity fund said Monday. The lawsuit, submitted to the Seoul Central District Court on Aug. 23, is meant to urge shareholders, including Namyang Dairy Chairman Hong Won-sik, to implement the sales deal signed on May 27 as planned, Hahn & Co. said in a statement.

Standard Chartered said Monday it has launched a blockchain-based digital trade finance platform through a joint venture with Chinese supply chain financial technology firm Linklogis. The platform named Olea will be operated by the joint venture headquartered in Singapore, with a goal of bringing together “institutional investors seeking opportunities in an alternative asset class with businesses requiring supply chain financing." Amelia Ng, an official from SC Ventures, the fintec

Hyundai Card announced Thursday it has launched a private label credit card in collaboration with IT giant Naver to bolster the credit card issuer’s online retail business. According to the company, the Naver Hyundai Card offers rewards and benefits to customers using online transaction and subscription services via Naver. A PLCC refers to a credit card rolled out by a credit card issuer, but which offers benefits from a specific retailer the issuer has partnered with. The credit card

The exit strategies of global private equity firms in South Korea indicate that Asia‘s fourth-largest economy is becoming a new proving ground for capital allocation in the Asia-Pacific region, according to market watchers on Thursday. The latest to do so was Bain Capital Private Equity, which inked a 1.7 trillion-won ($1.4 billion) deal to exit from listed botulinum toxin maker Hugel. Bain Capital Private Equity on Wednesday agreed to sell its 5.4 million shares and some 800,000 convert

Netmarble sold 133 billion won ($114 million) worth of shares in KakaoBank to secure liquidity, a regulatory filing showed on Thursday, ahead of the payment deadline for its acquisition of a social casino game company. This is the second time the mobile game company unloaded its holding in KakaoBank after it sold 6 million shares for 430 billion won on Aug. 10, just days after the internet-only bank successfully made its market debut on Aug. 6. After the two rounds of offloading, it still hol

The National Pension Service had a reserve fund of 908.3 trillion won ($777.7 billion) as of end-June, logging a 7.49 percent financial gain over the past six months, a preliminary estimate showed Wednesday. The world‘s third-largest pension fund has generated 74.5 trillion won in investment returns from January to June, as its stock holdings at home and abroad outperformed their benchmarks. This beat the earlier projection in 2020 where the NPS assets under management will stand at ju

Hanwha Asset Management said Wednesday it has bought shares in Hanwha Group’s brokerage arm, Hanwha Investment & Securities, from other nonfinancial group affiliates. The asset management firm acquired a combined 56.8 million common shares -- or a 26.46 percent stake -- in the brokerage house for 320.1 billion won ($274 million). Their sellers were auto parts maker Hanwha Global Asset, leisure service provider Hanwha Hotels & Resorts and department store operator Hanwha Galleria T

  Financial Services Commission Chairman nominee Koh Seung-beom expressed skepticism on Wednesday over the value of cryptocurrency as a financial asset, confirming his tone in line with the regulator’s move to tighten its grip on local crypto exchanges. “International organizations, including the Group of 20 and the International Monetary Fund, as well as a lot of market experts, find it difficult to consider virtual currencies as a financial asset, and think they could not f

Citibank Korea Inc. has again postponed a decision on the exit plan for its retail banking unit amid differences over sale terms, industry sources said Tuesday. Citibank Korea, the South Korean unit of Citigroup Inc., had originally planned to hold a board meeting on Aug. 26 to determine how to sell the retail banking division. But the lender has decided not to put its exit plan on the meeting's agenda, putting off its decision until September, according to the sources. It marks the second p

South Korea said Monday it has received Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) worth of some $11.7 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in line with the international organization's move to allocate its new asset reserves to member countries. In early August, the board of IMF governors approved a $650 billion expansion of its reserve assets, called SDRs, to allocate to IMF member countries in accordance with their existing quotas. The move is aimed at helping countries cope with the fallo

Minority shareholders of Kyobo Life Insurance denied having colluded with the company’s accountants to influence the pricing of shares as they sought to exit the company after its failed attempt to go public, one of its shareholders, Affinity Equity Partners, said Sunday. Legal representatives of the investor consortium led by the Hong Kong-based private equity firm argued in a statement that it abided by South Korea’s rules when estimating the strike price with the accounting firm

South Korean builder Hyundai Engineering’s anticipated initial public offering will bring its equity value to over 10 trillion won ($8.5 billion), as its market debut plan is considered a critical step for a full-fledged family business succession in Hyundai Motor Group. A booming housing construction market coupled with its net cash -- amounting to 2.3 trillion won as of end-June -- make the case for the 10 trillion-won mark in equity value of the company, analysts said. The company, d

South Korea’s financial watchdog has called on second-tier banks to tighten lending standards on their extension of personal unsecured loans, as part of a move to curb ballooning household debt, industry sources said Sunday. The Financial Supervisory Service had sent a message to the Korea Federation of Savings Banks on Friday urging its member companies, including savings banks and mutual financial cooperatives, to keep the maximum amount of credit loans allowed for individuals below th

South Korean banks have started to temporarily halt their home-backed loans under pressure from financial authorities seeking to rein in the nation’s snowballing household debt, sources said Friday. NH NongHyup Bank, one of the country’s top five commercial banks, decided to suspend all mortgage lending from next week until Nov. 30. Switching and renewals of mortgages will be halted as well. Extension of personal loans will be tightened as well, with customers able to borrow up

South Korea’s NH NongHyup Bank said Thursday it is collaborating with Samsung Electronics to accelerate digital transformation of its financial businesses. One of the country‘s top commercial banks and the global tech behemoth signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday that will help NH NongHyup efficiently utilize key emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain and the metaverse. Designing digital, yet consumer-friendly brick-and-mortar branches, de