Local investment house IMM Investment has acquired a 41 percent stake in GS Power, a subsidiary owned by GS Energy, an energy arm of GS Group, for 1.1 trillion won ($926 million), officials said Friday. GS Energy will maintain a 51 percent majority, after selling 3,136 shares totaling 1.1 trillion won. Last year, GS Energy bought back the 50 percent stake it sold to a local consortium of banks i...

In 2021, South Korea’s two biggest financial technology firms, Naver and Kakao, saw their market capitalization expand on-year, while drugmakers faced a dip in market value. As of last week, Naver, the country’s largest internet portal, had seen a 36 percent jump in its market cap at 63 trillion won ($53 billion), while the market value for Kakao, which runs the country’s largest messenger app f...

By Kim Arin ( arin@heraldcorp.com )

South Korea's military on Sunday reported 27 additional COVID-19 cases, with all of them being breakthrough infections, raising the total caseload among its personnel to 2,933. Of the new cases, 22 are from the Army, two from units under the direct control of the defense ministry, one from the Navy, one from the Marine Corps and one from the Air Force, officials said. Currently, 343 military pe...

The government on Sunday released the personal details of two non-custodial parents who have failed to pay child support for the first time since a related law revision came into effect in July. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said it has disclosed the personal information of two separate obligors of child support who failed to provide the expenses ordered by the court, on its website...

President Moon Jae-in will receive the government's annual policy briefings for the final time this week, Cheong Wa Dae said Sunday. The 2022 briefings will begin Monday under the slogan, "Changes made with the people, a government fulfilling its responsibilities until the end," the presidential office said in a press release. "Through the policy briefings, we plan to go through the achievement...

The company’s vice president said that this issue can be solved by making game engine-based content. When creating animation content using a game engine, it is not possible to create an animation that is as sophisticated as the one that is created through the rendering process, but it makes it possible to reflect feedback easily, he highlighted. “Since we do not need time for rendering, we are ...

The number of critically ill patients with COVID-19 in South Korea hit an all-time high Saturday, the government announced the same day. The increasing number of critical COVID-19 cases continues to overwhelm the country’s medical capacity. The number of critical COVID-19 cases reached 1,025 as of midnight Saturday, surpassing the previous high of 1,000 reported just the previous day, according ...

The market for plant meat replacements is at its beginning stage, says industry officials. But the race to develop innovative vegan meat replacements that resembles the taste, smell and texture of real meat is expected to heat up even more, especially as more young Koreans accept veganism as a life style choice. As of this year there is an estimated population of some 2.5 million vegans and vege...

Customer demand for wine and Korean beef has shown rapid increase this year, as an alternative to dining outside, said the local discount chain E-mart on Sunday. The discount retailer tracked the changes in the type of products sold from 2019 to November this year. According to the store’s data, wine leaped from 10th place in 2019 to sixth in 2021, with sales jumping by 32 percent from 2019. M...

Samsung Electronics has reportedly launched a new China team under the direct supervision of vice chairman and Chief Executive Officer Han Jong-hee, signaling a change in its strategy to reenter Asia’s largest market that is already dominated by homegrown manufacturers. According to media reports, Samsung Electronics has kicked off a new operation, loosely translated as the China Business Innova...

The competition to enter the used battery business for electric vehicles is heating up among domestic and global car and battery makers, amid market prospects that the market size would grow to hit 20 trillion won ($16.8 billion) in less than 10 years, data showed. According to data from SNE Research, a consulting firm based in Korea, the global market size of used EV batteries is anticipated to...

The ruling Democratic Party (DP) on Sunday accused the wife of main opposition presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol of falsifying her attendance at New York University in 2006. Kim Keon-hee, the wife of the People Power Party (PPP) candidate, has been hit with a series of allegations that she falsified her credentials when applying for teaching jobs at two local universities in 2007 and 2013. A...

Leeum Museum of Art will stream its two permanent exhibitions on Naver TV introducing its key collection as well as offer a chance for viewers to visit the exhibitions in person for a special opening of the museum on Dec. 27. One of the country’s top private museums, Leeum Museum of Art has seen an upswing in popularity since reopening on Oct. 8, with reservation time slots allowing 600 people t...

South Korea’s commercial banks are rushing into the delivery service market, challenging the country’s big tech and retail companies that have blurred boundaries between finance and tech industries. According to Shinhan Bank, it will start its food delivery beta service Wednesday. The delivery app, dubbed “Ddaeng-gyoeyo,” is a separate app from the bank’s all-in-one mobile app “Shinhan SOL.” Th...