Franchisees of global dining brand Pizza Hut on Monday visited their Korean headquarters in southern Seoul to demand an audit into the marketing and other fees they have paid to the head office for the past several years.About 20 people representing a group of 247 Korean franchisees requested the pizzeria chain to disclose the usage of the 5 percent of sales revenue that each franchisee has paid to the headquarters for marketing fees. The amount is assumed to be more than 10 billion won ($8.87 m

Industry July 6, 2015

U.S. hedge fund Elliott Associates has added its name to the stakeholders’ list of two additional Samsung affiliates -- Samsung SDI and Samsung Fire and Marine Insurance -- ahead of the July 17 Samsung C&T shareholders meeting in which the controversial merger deal between C&T and Cheil Industries will be put to a vote. Elliott’s expansion of its investment in Samsung Group is seen as an attempt to gain more control over Korea’s largest business conglomerate, which analysts have said is in the p

Industry July 6, 2015

Prosecutors said Friday they have raided the Seoul office of POSCO, the latest in a series of investigations into alleged corruptions involving South Korea's top steelmaker.Prosecutors confiscated accounting books, internal documents and computer hard disks at the Seoul office. POSCO's headquarters is in Pohang, about 370 kilometers southeast of Seoul.The raid came hours after prosecutors secured accounting books and other internal documents from Dongyang Construction, a small builder in Pohang,

Social Affairs July 4, 2015

A group of lawmakers in the United States has expressed opposition to Japan's bid to get world heritage status for its industrial facilities linked to wartime Korean slave labor, calling on Tokyo to include their history if it wants the inscription, documents showed Friday.A set of early mining and steelmaking sites in Japan has been shortlisted for the UNESCO World Heritage list, with the final call to be made later in the day. But it has sparked international controversy as Tokyo left out the

World News July 4, 2015

A magnitude 6.5 earthquake that shook China's far-western region of Xinjiang killed three people, injured 71 and collapsed thousands of houses, officials said Saturday.The quake hit Pishan county in the Hotan region of Xinjiang early Friday. Earlier reports on state media said that six people had died, but by Saturday the China Earthquake Administration gave the tally as three killed and 71 injured. "Buildings were trembling and people rushed to the streets," said Jin Xingchang, an express couri

World News July 4, 2015

Another doctor at Samsung Group's hospital is confirmed to have contracted Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, the government said Saturday, putting the total number of those diagnosed with the disease at 185. A doctor from Samsung Medical Center, whose identity is being withheld, has been added to the patients list and is under examination, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said. No fatalities have been reported over the past four days. The country's death toll from the viral disease stands at 3

Social Affairs July 4, 2015

Boko Haram carried out a fresh wave of massacres in northeastern Nigeria on Friday, locals said, killing nearly 200 people in 48 hours of violence President Muhammadu Buhari blasted as "inhuman and barbaric".The militants have staged multiple attacks across restive Borno state since Wednesday, gunning down worshippers at evening Ramadan prayers, shooting women in their homes, and dragging men from their beds in the dead of night.A young female suicide bomber also killed 12 worshippers when she b

World News July 4, 2015

Hyosung announced Friday it would invest 1 trillion won ($893.3 million) to establish a 300,000-ton polyketone manufacturing plant and a research and development center in Korea’s southeastern industrial city of Ulsan. The industrial conglomerate and the local government of Ulsan signed a memorandum of understanding on Thursday to jointly work on the development scheduled to be completed in 2021. The 208,000-square-meter site is set at Yongyeon-dong, which is close to another Hyosung plant, and

Industry July 3, 2015

Steelmaker POSCO said Friday that it has produced more than 800 million tons of steel products, about 43 years since manufacturing started in 1972. 　According to the company, the cumulative production amount surpassed 800 million tons as of 7 a.m. on June 25. POSCO held celebratory ceremonies at its plants in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, and Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province, to encourage the field workers. 　“We are especially proud because the record was set amid the long-standing economic

Industry July 3, 2015