Buying a McLaren vehicle is buying “technology and craftsmanship,” according to David Mclntyre, the newly appointed Asia-Pacific director of the British supercar maker.The “small” U.K.-based supercar maker is finally making inroads in the Korean market, having launched its first showroom in southern Seoul on Wednesday. McIntyre has long experience in Korea’s high-end auto import market. Until recently he headed the local branch of Jaguar Land Rover, and the brands saw massive sales rises under h

A model poses next to McLaren’s 650S Spider supercar at the carmaker’s first South Korean showroom, which opened in Seoul on Wednesday. (McLaren Korea)

The battle for opening a single downtown duty-free shop is heating up under the watchful eyes of the chiefs of some of the nation’s largest conglomerates. The new duty-free store in central Seoul, whose license will be granted in July, is seen as a golden opportunity for local retail giants to open up a new revenue stream. While the domestic retail market is nearing saturation, the duty-free market has expanded rapidly in recent years, recording double-digit growth since 2010. Between 2010 and 2

“It is not good manners to not strike one’s neck when one has asked for it. I will strike in the most bloody and painful way possible.”The graphic comments are not threats by IS terrorists on YouTube videos. Instead, they are from Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction chairman Park Yong-sung, a business tycoon, in an email he sent to professors at Chung-Ang University in Seoul where he was serving as the board chairman. Park on Tuesday stepped down from all three posts after sparking controve

Hanwha Q Cells, a solar panel unit of Hanwha Group, has signed a 1 trillion won ($923.7 million) deal with Florida-based light company NextEra Energy to supply 1.5 gigawatts of solar panels, a record for a single contract in the domestic industry.The company will supply solar modules to NexEra’s solar plants under construction from the fourth quarter through the same period next year, the company said in a statement Monday. NextEra currently aims to build solar power plants with a capacity of 1.

Hanwha Group, the nation’s 10th-largest conglomerate, has won a $200 million project to establish hospital facilities and provide medical assistance in Bismayah, Iraq.  Under the agreement, Hanwha Engineering and Construction will build the hospital on a 77,000 square meter plot of land. The group’s trade and commerce team will assign medical staff and manage the operation, Hanwha officials said Tuesday. The group is said to be in talks with Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital in Seoul for a par

Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction vice chairman Jung Ji-taek (front, left) and Lilama president Le Van Tuan (front, right) shake hands on Friday in Hanoi, Vietnam, after signing a deal to build a coal-fired power plant in Hau Giang, about 200 kilometers southwest of Ho Chi Minh City, by October 2019. (Doosan Heavy Industries& Construction)

The largest shareholder of Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering has denied speculation about the shipbuilder’s takeover of its debt-ridden rival, STX Offshore and Shipbuilding.The state-run Korea Development Bank, the main creditor of DSME, said Sunday that speculation about DSME’s takeover was “unrealistic.”“Merging KOSPI-listed DSME and STX, which is under a restructuring program, would most definitely anger shareholders,” a KDB official said on condition of anonymity. “The rumor is simp

South Korean conglomerates are cashing in on the promising global water market, with the water shortage emerging as a global agenda. According to Global Water Intelligence, a U.K.-based water industry research firm, the size of the world’s water treatment market is forecast to expand up to $1 trillion by the end of 2015. Betting on the industry’s high growth potential, Korean players have sharpened their competitiveness in the “blue gold’’ sector, where European water giants like Veolia and Suez