The stock price of petrochemical-to-battery company LG Chem rebounded Friday after a sharp loss immediately after its announcement during trading hours Thursday that it would split off its battery operation. LG Chem shares climbed 3.3 percent in the Friday trading session. LG Chem is the fifth-largest stock on the main bourse, Kospi, with 47.1 trillion won ($40.6 billion) market cap. The slight recovery came after the Seoul-based company unveiled plans to carve out its battery unit under a ne

Market Sept. 18, 2020

South Korean asset manager Shinhan BNP Paribas Asset Management said Friday that it would beef up efforts to take climate change into account in its asset management business, as part of its green finance and impact investing. Under its climate action declaration released Friday, the joint venture of Shinhan Financial Group and BNP Paribas Asset Management will consider the impact its investment decisions and financial products could have on climate change. It is the first such declaration in

Market Sept. 18, 2020

Representatives of South Korean institutional investors said Tuesday they were increasingly tapping into distressed asset classes in their capital deployment to real estate assets, as the novel coronavirus disruption in the market is upping the appetite for the two extremes: very safe and very risky. The so-called “barbell strategy” is playing out to fight the downside impact of COVID-19, amid heightening pressure to deploy capital, institutional investors said during PERE Investor

Market Sept. 17, 2020

Users of Toss, a local financial services app operated by Viva Republica, spent 65 percent of their disaster relief funds in less than a month, the company said Thursday, referring to its data analysis. According to the estimate, 65 percent of the total 395.2 billion won ($336.5 million) in spending by 778,000 recipients was spent before end-May, after the Korean government started to dole out some 14 trillion won to every Korean household that month. Viva Republica compiled the data from use

Economy Sept. 17, 2020

South Korean investors are inching closer to taking over a student housing facility in the United States from US real estate developer Lincoln Ventures for roughly 140 billion won ($119.37 million), local brokerage arm Korea Investment & Securities said Wednesday. The 18-story building, Moontower, has four underground levels and houses 166 units with 567 beds. The high-end student residential facility will serve the University of Texas at Austin starting in the fall 2020 semester. Its 19,0

Market Sept. 16, 2020

Singapore-based online marketplace platform Carousell said Wednesday it had raised a combined $80 million funding from an investor group led by South Korean internet giant Naver. Along with Naver, other Korean investors, including Mirae Asset-Naver Growth Fund and NH Investment & Securities, took part in the consortium. Credit Suisse advised the deal. The funding enabled Carousell to exceed a $900 million valuation, according to the startup. Since launching in 2012, Carousell has been

Market Sept. 16, 2020

Hong Kong-based private equity investor PAG Asia Capital exited from Korean toy maker Young Toys by selling its entire stake for some 150 billion won ($127 million) to an investor consortium led by local book publisher MiraeN. The transaction was closed earlier last week, according to deal adviser BDA Partners, after the proposed buyer and seller inked a sales and purchase agreement for 100 percent stake in Young Toys in August. MiraeN declined to comment on deal terms. “We’re pro

Market Sept. 15, 2020

Shinhan Financial Group’s plan to increase capital, list new common shares and invite foreign private equity firms as new shareholders in October has left local market watchers with doubts about the motivation behind the move. Last week, the nation‘s No. 1 banking group by total assets said the fundraising is aimed at a securing long-term capital buffer amid COVID-19 uncertainties and a new growth driver in its global business. Questions still linger, according to analysts here, a

Market Sept. 13, 2020

Financial intelligence firm PEI said Sunday it plans to host its PERE Investor Forum: Seoul Virtual Experience 2020 on Tuesday. The virtual event is designed to connect South Korean investors with global fund managers and investment advisers to get a glimpse of the future capital flows in the real estate investment scene in and out of Korea through virtual sessions. Sharing the persepctives of Korean institutional investors will be representatives of the Public Officials Benefit Association,

Market Sept. 13, 2020

Global real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield won the top commercial real estate adviser and consultant spot by Euromoney’s 2020 Real Estate Survey for the third consecutive year, the company said Sunday. Euromoney Real Estate Survey’s country result also showed that Cushman & Wakefield’s Korean unit won the award here, along with other 15 countries including the United States, Japan and China. “The success of winning the Euromoney Real Estate Awards in

Market Sept. 13, 2020

Domestic industrial sectors that are reeling from the coronavirus fallout in South Korea are unlikely to see a drastic rebound and probably face longer-lasting financial strain, officials of credit rating agency the Korea Investors Service said Thursday. Korean businesses dedicated to auto parts manufacturing, oil refining, hotels, duty-free shops, theaters and aviation are seeing a negative credit outlook and facing heightened financial pressure, making them subject to credit downgrading in t

Market Sept. 10, 2020

The number of foreign account holders that reported to the National Tax Service surged 24 percent on-year to 2,685 worth nearly 60 trillion won, data showed Thursday. In June, 1,889 residents of Korea reported accounts to NTS, each holding a balance of 4.2 billion won on average, while 796 Seoul-based corporations documented accounts, with an average balance of 65.2 billion won. Their total account balance came to 59.9 trillion won ($50.5 billion), down 2.6 percent from the previous year. The n

Market Sept. 10, 2020

Even before the pandemic, South Korean institutional investors pursued safe bets in infrastructure investment, given their tendency to work with top-tier external partners to manage their money and to join the final round of fundraising for those external partners. They became more conservative in the wake of COVID-19, representatives of Korean institutional investors said Tuesday at Infrastructure Investor Seoul Summit Virtual Experience 2020, hosted by the London-based financial intelligence

Market Sept. 9, 2020

Korean asset management houses are facing a ripple effect from London-based investor H2O Asset Management‘s decision to halt fund withdrawals for four weeks and to draw up measures to seek redress from the fund freeze, according to an announcement Tuesday. VI Asset Management and Kiwoom Asset Management, both based in Seoul, have their combined investment of 460 billion won ($387 million) suspended from the redemptions, as the asset managers had bought mutual funds managed by H2O through

Market Sept. 8, 2020

The coronavirus pandemic is pressing Korean conglomerates to seek innovation for growth. At the same time, a recent change in the nation’s law, allowing a chaebol with a holding company structure to own a venture capital house, is expected to add vigor to the startup ecosystem here. Before the revision, corporations turned to venture capital houses to indirectly invest in startups. The revision, however, still highlights the existing role for local venture capital houses -- to intervene

Market Sept. 7, 2020