KB Kookmin Bank said Tuesday that it has signed a commitment of 240 million Canadian dollars ($171 million) to finance a Coastal GasLink natural gas pipeline project in Canada through a senior loan. This is part of the C$6.6 billion project financing from a syndicate of lenders, composed of KB Kookmin Bank and 26 other banks including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of Montreal and Royal Bank of Canada, it added. KB Kookmin Bank was the sole Korean participant. The loans will go to TC Energy, formerly kn

Korea Western Power and NH-Amundi Asset Management signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate in their co-investment in a 240-megawatt wind farm project in Sweden, according to NH-Amundi on Tuesday. The infrastructure project to build 56 wind turbines in Ange Municipality in northern Sweden is poised to be completed by the end of 2020. The facility has signed a 29-year sales contract with an undisclosed regional electricity market, promising a long-term source of stable income, NH-Amund

Debt-ridden Doosan Group is in talks to sell its real estate asset Doosan Tower to Mastern Investment Management for roughly 700 billion won ($572.3 million), according to industry sources. Doosan and Mastern are said to be at the final stage to confirm the price of the commercial building located in Seoul, which the troubled conglomerate has been using as the headquarters of its holding company for over two decades. Doosan looks to sell the asset and lease it back from the proposed buyer Maste

South Korea is likely to end its monthslong drought in the initial public offering scene with Seoul-based pharmaceutical services company DreamCIS moving to raise 20.2 billion won ($16.5 million). DreamCIS, a company that provides contract-based research services to pharmaceutical and health care firms, said Monday it has fixed its offer price at 14,900 won per share, at the higher end of the price band. Its two-day institutional portion until Friday was 926.11 times oversubscribed. The compan

The number of investors holding Samsung Electronics shares surged more than five times after the company divided the face value of stocks two years ago, data showed Sunday. According to data filed by the Financial Supervisory Service, common shares issued by Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest chipmaker, were held by more than 1.36 million investors in the first quarter, a 565 percent increase from the same quarter two years ago, with 241,513 investors. Stocks worth 1.25 trillion w

The mergers and acquisitions scene in South Korea remains relatively vigorous, as small and medium-sized enterprises are looking for more chances to cash out assets amid the continued COVID-19 threat to markets and industries. With a slowing number of confirmed cases, deals that have been postponed for weeks due to the virus are back on the table. Below is a roundup of major M&A deals here and their progress in the previous week. Centroid to take over Woongjin book unit Woongjin unveiled

An affiliate of Korean real estate developer SK D&D is poised to acquire the Young City office building complex for 545.8 billion won ($444.6 million), a regulatory filing showed Thursday. A real estate investment trust established by SK D&D’s wholly owned subsidiary D&D Investment will take over the asset from investors including London-based investment firm Actis within May, according to the disclosure. Young City REIT is designed to acquire the asset, generate income th

South Korea’s financial authorities said Tuesday they plan to set detailed guidelines on non-face-to-face services -- recently labeled “untact.” As part of its efforts to help seniors adapt to digital trends and technologies in the financial sector, the Financial Services Commision announced last week that it will commission research to identify demand for digital banking and financial services among seniors through surveys and data collection. In addition, the financial auth

  South Korea’s top financial watchdog announced Tuesday it plans to launch the second round of an emergency loan program worth 10 trillion won ($8.2 billion) from May 18 in a bid to financially support small business owners who have been affected by the novel coronavirus outbreak.  The affected business owners will be able to borrow loans from six commercial banks -- Shinhan Bank, KB Kookmin Bank, Woori Bank, Hana Bank, Industrial Bank of Korea and NH Bank. Those who have alrea

The Financial Services Commission said Tuesday that it will start receiving applications for its part-time MBA program focused on digital finance from May 15. The program, slated to launch in September, will be managed by KAIST College of Business, a graduate school from technology and management, and jointly promoted by the FSC and the Seoul Metropolitan Government. The program will receive 40 students for this year’s fall semester to be the first graduating class. Those who have wor

Mirae Asset Global Investments, the asset management arm of Korean financial group Mirae Asset, said Monday that it scrapped a $5.8 billion deal to acquire 15 luxury hotel properties in the United States from Chinese investor Dajia Insurance, weeks after it called off the takeover. Mirae Asset, which acts on behalf of funds it manages, also said it invoked its right for the return of the 10 percent deposit from a third-party escrow agent as the transaction had failed. Amid ongoing litigation,

Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin is likely to accelerate the initial public offering of its subsidiary Hotel Lotte to consolidate his grip on the multinational group’s South Korean entities amid a resurfacing proxy battle with his elder brother Shin Dong-joo, analysts said Monday. This comes as he immediately needs to increase the value of Lotte Corp., a Seoul-based holding firm of Korean-Japanese retail giant. The Hotel Lotte IPO will not only water down its Japanese control but also

Psomagen, a US company dedicated to genome sequencing technology and DNA testing, said Wednesday it looks to raise at least 57.5 billion won ($47.2 million) in an initial public offering on the Korean bourse. Under the plan to be listed on Kosdaq, Psomagen seeks to issue 4.2 million new common shares, amounting to a 25 percent stake, and offer them to investors in an IPO set to take place in May. Shinhan Investment is an underwriter of the IPO deal. The IPO proceeds will be used to boost its

Korean firm counters Anbang on unfulfilled ‘prerequisites,’ denies capital financing concerns

Policy lender Korea Development Bank and fund-of-funds investment firm Korea Growth Investment Corp. said Tuesday they have selected 18 external partners to inject a total of 2.5 trillion won ($2.05 billion) in growth capital to support the scaling up of venture companies here. Of the total of the latest batch, a combined 830 billion won will be backed by state-run financial institutions including KDB, while 50 billion won will come from the state budget. This marks the latest addition to KDB