Lotte Group hopes to acquire Hi Mart, the nation’s largest electronics appliance retailer, in an apparent bid to gain a new growth engine. Lotte revealed its intention to buy Hi Mart on Monday when the Korea Exchange asked the retail giant to confirm the rapidly spreading market speculation. “We are not considering specifics as Hi Mart has yet to announce the details on its sale of shares. But we plan to decide on the participation in an opening bid,” the company said on Monday. The comment came

South Korean stocks closed 1.88 percent lower on Tuesday as investors had growing skepticism about the effectiveness of a new fiscal treaty for the European Union, analysts said. The local currency fell against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark KOSPI fell 35.7 points to 1,864.06. Trading volume was moderate at 442.9 million shares worth 5.21 trillion won ($4.51 billion) with losers outpacing gainers 613 to 224.“The Seoul market lost ground on concerns that EU summit results may be short of fundament

POSCO founder Park Tae-joon was in critical condition Tuesday at Severance Hospital in western Seoul after developing an acute lung injury, officials said.Park, 84, underwent an operation to remove one of his lungs and pulmonary pleura on Sunday, the hospital said in a statement. He has been suffering from side effects related to a 2001 surgery in the U.S. for a large tumor. “The surgery results are not very good,” said Han Jin-ho, a hospital spokesperson. “We can’t conclude how long he has left

South Korea’s tax agency said Tuesday that it is investigating 10 mid-sized domestic companies on suspicions they evaded taxes in transferring wealth from owners to their children through funds in tax haven countries.According to the National Tax Service, the companies are suspected of evading taxes in the process of wealth transfer by selling shares of their affiliates at well below their market value to the funds that were created under the children’s names.The companies under investigation in

Samsung Card Co.’s decision to sell a 17 percent stake in its unlisted affiliate Samsung Everland Inc. to KCC Corp. prompted local brokerages to lower their target share prices for the card firm Tuesday, expressing disappointment over the lower-than-expected final transaction value. In a regulatory filing on Monday, Samsung Card said its board gave the green light to a plan to sell 425,000 shares in Samsung Everland, the de facto holding company of Samsung Group, to KCC, a local maker of constru

Public agencies plan to expand graduate hiring by 44 percent next year to help ease youth unemployment and encourage corresponding efforts in the private sector, the Finance Ministry said Tuesday.The ministry said a total of 14,400 new jobs will be created across 285 public agencies next year, up from about 10,000 for this year. It decided to increase jobs set aside for high school graduates from 3.4 percent to 20 percent next year, in a decision to encourage private firms to follow the move.“It

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s leading memory chipmaker, expanded its portion in the global dynamic random access memory market to a record quarterly high in the third quarter, industry data showed Tuesday. The company accounted for 45 percent of global DRAM revenues in the July-September period, IHS iSuppli said, widening its lead over other suppliers despite the memory industry‘s downturn. While third-quarter global DRAM revenues dropped 16 percent from the previous three months, Samsung

More than 500 get vice president-and-higher executive postsSamsung Group announced its biggest-ever year-end promotion of vice presidents on Tuesday, with 501 company executives at its affiliates moving up the ladder.The country’s largest conglomerate completed its management reshuffle by announcing 48 new executive vice presidents, 127 senior vice presidents and 326 vice presidents, even more than the 490 executives promoted last year, its officials said.“We have awarded those who have led in t

Nearly two out of five married women in South Korea were forced to stop working due to marriage, having children, child education and other family-related obligations, data showed Tuesday.According to the data by Statistics Korea, the number of women who gave up their jobs due to marriage and other family-related reasons came to 1.9 million as of June. That made up 19.3 percent of all married women aged 15-54 here. Of them, 47 percent cited marriage as the major reason why they quit their jobs.

South Korea and the U.S. held annual talks on promoting defense industry cooperation, Seoul‘s state procurement agency said Tuesday.The 42nd annual meeting of the Defense Technology and Industrial Cooperation Committee (DTICC) took place in Washington on Monday local time, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said.Noh Dae-rae, head of the DAPA, and Frank Kendall III, the U.S. undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, co-chaired the meeting.The DTICC is

South Korean banks’ short-term overseas borrowing declined in November as Europe‘s debt crisis prompted them to repay foreign debt to brace for the worsening of the turmoil, the financial watchdog said Tuesday.A total of 16 local banks refinanced 95.9 percent of their maturing debt with fresh foreign borrowing last month, down from 108 percent tallied in October, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.A bank’s short-term refinancing rate measures the percentage of its new borrowing again