The initial public offerings of South Korean firms in February were largely successful, despite the impact of the new coronavirus on the domestic stock market. This month through Friday, five companies -- Sunam, Lemon, Kencoa Aerospace, JNTC, Seoul Viosys -- wrapped up IPOs, raising a combined 192.1 billion won ($158.1 million). Four out of five, except for Kencoa Aerospace, were more than successful. The offered prices of the four companies were set at, or beyond, the upper cap of the price

The Military Mutual Aid Association said Friday it has selected eight South Korean external partners dedicated to investment in private equities and venture capital to back a combined 130 billion won ($107.1 million) this year. The Korean institutional investor will invest a total of 100 billion won to blind pool funds managed by private equity houses KStone Partners, Aju IB Investment, SkyLake Investment, KTB Private Equtiy and Dominus Investment. In the meantime, a combined 30 billion won w

The National Pension Service, South Korea’s largest public pension fund, reaped record investment return in 2019 largely thanks to a bull run in overseas stock markets, its preliminary data showed Thursday. Its annual rate of return came to 11.31 percent last year, the highest since the launch of NPS Investment Management in 1999, followed by 10.39 percent in 2009 and 10.37 percent in 2010. Over the past year, it earned 73.4 trillion won ($60.4 billion) return, which is 1.5 times large

South Korea’s private bad bank, United Asset Management Co. (UAMCO), is betting on exiting from an investment in a distressed company here -- highlighting its growing role in corporate restructuring here. Seha, an industrial paper maker based in Daegu, is inching closer to inviting a new group of controlling shareholders led by Hankuk Paper to take the place of UAMCO, after Samil PricewaterhouseCoopers selected it as the preferred bidder for Seha’s majority stake and its bonds. Up

  Prosecutors raided Daishin Securities, KB Securities and Woori Bank on Thursday as part of a probe into the snowballing Lime Asset Management fiasco. Investigators from the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office executed a search and seizure operation at the headquarters of Daishin Securities and KB Securities in central Seoul and KB Securities’ office in Yeouido in the morning. Prosecutors had raided Lime Asset Management and Shinhan Investment last week, after the f

KB Financial Group said Wednesday that it plans to set up an intraboard committee focused on environmental, social and corporate governance. The group’s board of directors has decided to officially put the issue up for vote at the upcoming shareholders meeting scheduled for March 20. The committee will handle decisions related to environmental, gender and social issues, the group said. The launch comes after KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo vowed to shift to a ESG-centered

E&F Private Equity has inked a deal to acquire the ceramics operation of concrete-to-construction business group IS Dongseo for 217 billion won ($178 million), according to a filing on Wednesday. The private equity firm, managing 342.2 billion won in assets as of 2019, agreed to buy a 100 percent stake in the operation on May 15. Prior to the transaction, the ceramics business will be split off from IS Dongseo earlier in May, which will be named Inus. The business, dedicated to making an

As the number of coronavirus cases continued to surge in Korea on Tuesday, all major banks here launched emergency response plans to protect their core networks. Commercial banks -- including Woori, Hana, KB Kookmin and Shinhan -- have temporarily shut down around a combined 20 brick-and-mortar branches across the nation, as of Tuesday afternoon. They have been following basic quarantine procedures, such as ordering employees at branches that came in contact with coronavirus patients into se

Big Hit Entertainment, the South Korean entertainment management agency behind K-pop sensation BTS, has selected underwriters for its initial public offering in the country’s stock market. Lead underwriters include NH Investment & Securities, Korea Investment & Securities and JP Morgan, while Mirae Asset Daewoo will also participate in the process. An IPO underwriter is responsible for offering privately held or newly issued stocks to public investors, while protecting investors

Activist private equity firm Korea Corporate Governance Improvement on Tuesday objected to Delta Air Lines decision to hike its stake in Hanjin KAL -- holding firm of Korean Air -- amid the escalating proxy battle that will determine the fate of its owner family. Its disapproval comes amid reports that the US carrier might act as a “white knight” to vote in favor of the Hanjin Group’s controlling family, given its ongoing partnership with Korean Air through a joint venture. K

South Korean venture capital firm Company K Partners said Monday it has launched a 124 billion won ($101.7 million) vehicle that targets startups at the later stage of growth, bringing its assets under management to over 560 billion won. The vehicle, dubbed Company K High Growth Fund, is backed by major institutional investors including Korea Teachers’ Credit Union and Korea Scientists & Engineers Mutual-aid Association; state-owned risk capital firm K-Growth, as well as Company K&rs

State-run Korea Land & Housing said Monday it plans to place a series of housing and land development project orders worth 20.5 trillion won ($16.8 billion) across the peninsula this year, in order to prop up the nation’s shrinking economy hit by the COVID-19 outbreak. The amount is double that of the previous year. Of the total, 34 percent of the total budget will be spent within the first half of this year, in a bid to address the economic downturn as Korea struggles to contain the

Troubled hedge fund Lime Asset Management on Monday confirmed total investor losses of 634.1 billion won ($520.3 million) from 173 feeder funds, which were injected in two of its master funds, Pluto FI D-1 and Tethys 2. The company said the estimate is based on the combined subscription amount of the feeder funds -- investor’s money that initially went to the funds -- at 1.6 trillion won minus their current net asset value. The estimate came as Lime Asset wrapped up the revision of the v

South Korean real estate investment firm JR Asset Management (JR AMC) said Monday that it had obtained government approval for the initial public offering of its real estate investment trust, which invests in Belgium’s second-tallest skyscraper. The REIT, called JR Global, is hoping to carry out the nation’s first listing of a cross-border REIT. The Land Ministry authorized JR Global to embark on the IPO process and submit a prospectus. Under the Korean rules, a REIT listing does n

The labor-management feud at South Korea’s hypermarket chain operator Homeplus escalated Sunday, with union members accusing its majority shareholder MBK Partners of profiteering at the expense of the company. The controlling private equity firm denied having done so, accusing the union of misleading the public. According to the labor union, MBK Partners has pulled 1.9 trillion won ($1.6 billion) out of Homeplus hypermarkets through the sale of its properties and brought in 1.2 trillio