Big Bet
Scope
Date
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Fintech
Kakao to challenge Naver, Apple for offline payment services
South Korea’s largest mobile payment app KakaoPay has bought a stake in the country’s No. 1 electronic payment system provider, accordin...
Sep 29, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Alternative investments
Samsung insurers commit $650 mn to Blackstone's alternative assets
South Korea’s Samsung Life Insurance Co. and Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Co. have committed to a $650 million injection in some altern...
Sep 28, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Central bank
BOK chief signals another big step as Fed hike haunts won
South Korea’s central bank on Thursday signaled another 50-basis-point policy interest rate hike as the won currency weakened past the psychol...
Sep 22, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Shipping & Shipbuilding
Hyundai Heavy to adopt Palantir's big data platform
South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries Group said on Wednesday that it has signed a contract with Palantir Technologies Inc., a US data analyt...
Sep 21, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Tech, Media & Telecom
South Korea fines Google, Meta $72 million for privacy violations
South Korea’s privacy protection regulator on Wednesday levied millions of dollars in fines on Alphabet’s Google LLC and Facebook operat...
Sep 14, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Pension funds
CalSTRS, Korea's KTCU consider launching 2nd real estate JV
The Korean Teachers’ Credit Union (KTCU), a retirement fund for South Korean teachers and employees, and the California State Teachers' Retire...
Sep 07, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Korean chipmakers
SK Hynix bets on 2025 memory upturn with $11 billion new plant
SK Hynix Inc., the world’s second-largest memory chipmaker, will spend 15 trillion won ($11 billion) over the next five years to build a new m...
Sep 06, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Korean startups
Business magnates' startup investment fraternity V-Society going strong
Back in August 2000, a fraternity of domestic business magnates’ children and startup entrepreneurs named V-Society was founded. The frat...
Sep 01, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Waste management
SK Ecoplant bets on US battery recycling firm Ascend Elements
South Korea’s SK Ecoplant Co., formerly SK Engineering & Construction Co., signed a stock purchase agreement (SPA) on Aug. 31 to invest $5...
Sep 01, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Retail
Korean big-box stores see credit rating downgrades
Two credit rating agencies have lowered South Korean big-box retail giants’ credit profiles. Korea’s top three big-box stores, Homeplus ...
Aug 31, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Food & Beverage
Drones, AI, big data power Korean fisheries’ earnings
The Jubilee, a 2,200-ton tuna fishing vessel operated by South Korea’s leading fishing company Dongwon Industries Co., has been using drones t...
Aug 17, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Carbon neutrality
Samsung Electronics to announce plans to join RE100 Initiative
Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest smartphone and memory chipmaker, will soon join The Climate Group’s RE100 Initiative as the...
Aug 14, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Samsung Group
Samsung’s Lee reinstated; big moves in store for top conglomerate
Lee Jae-yong, Samsung Group’s de facto leader, on Friday had his right to work restored, paving the way for big moves for South Korea’s ...
Aug 12, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Private equity
It's time for individual investors to bet on stocks: Carlyle's David Rubenstein
A lot of stock investors have jumped into the bullish market in recent years. But global inflation and recession appear as threats to invest...
Aug 08, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Shipping & Shipbuilding
Korea’s Big Three shipbuilders in red despite growing order backlog
South Korea’s three major shipbuilders remain in the red despite hefty new ship orders so far this year, led by high-priced vessels such as li...
Aug 01, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Korean startups
Voyager X plans to beat conglomerates by executing weird, unique ideas
Voyager X is a relatively new artificial intelligence (AI) startup in South Korea. Its founder Nam Se-dong, however, has been a well-known figu...
Jul 31, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Aerospace & Defense
South Korea’s Mirae Asset Group bets $100 million on SpaceX
Mirae Asset Securities Co. is poised to invest $100 million in US spacecraft and satellite communication corporation SpaceX. The South Korean f...
Jul 15, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Fiber & Textile
The North Face supplier Youngone to bet on global outdoor startups
South Korea’s Youngone Holdings Co. is set to accelerate its new business by establishing a corporate venture capital (CVC) firm in Singapor...
Jul 14, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Central bank
BOK likely to take 50-bp big step hike to curb inflation
South Korea’s central bank is expected to raise interest rates by 50 basis points (bps) on Wednesday for the first time in history to cool dow...
Jul 12, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Private equity
Korean PE firms' 2021 funds bet on parts makers, dividend stock
IMM Investment Co. and STIC Investments Co., the two most active South Korean private equity firms in 2021 fundraising, made bets on a dividend-focu...
Jul 08, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Economy
Korea inflation at 24-year high, adds to big step views
South Korea’s inflation accelerated to a 24-year high last month, reinforcing expectations that the central bank may raise interest rates by 5...
Jul 05, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Mergers & Acquisitions
Lotte Chemical, Bain Capital among bidders for Korea’s Iljin Materials
The much-touted sale of a controlling stake in Iljin Materials Co., a leading South Korean battery materials maker, is flagging as big spenders are ...
Jul 01, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Retail
Retailers rely on property redevelopment as earnings sag
South Korea’s large retailers are keen on redeveloping their decades-old stores into modern residential and commercial complexes as a way out ...
Jun 24, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Future mobility
LG, Kakao Mobility to roll out autonomous delivery robot service
LG Electronics Inc. and Kakao Mobility Corp. have agreed to form a future mobility technology partnership with an aim to jointly launch an autonomou...
Jun 22, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Central bank
BOK may take big-step rate hike on Fed's aggressive tightening
South Korea’s central bank may raise interest rates more than usual to rein in inflation in Asia’s fourth-largest economy after the US F...
Jun 16, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Corporate bonds
It's time to bet on high-yield bond funds: Barings
High-yield bonds generally create greater yields than other funds, but low-quality bonds are vulnerable to economic downturns and the firms’ c...
Jun 09, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Advertising & Marketing
Hana Financial scores big with Son Heung-min sports marketing
South Korea’s national soccer team, led by captain Son Heung-min, lost to Brazil 1-5 in a pre-World Cup friendly on Thursday, much to 65,000 K...
Jun 03, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Corporate investment
LG bets $34 bn on battery, automotive electronics biz for its future
LG Group, South Korea’s fourth-largest conglomerate, is set to pour $34 billion into the battery, automotive electronics and other future grow...
May 26, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Automobiles
Hankook Tire builds Asia’s largest proving ground for future car tires
Hankook Tire & Technology Co., South Korea’s top tire maker, said on Wednesday it has opened Asia’s largest proving ground to test t...
May 25, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Corporate investment
Hyundai to spend $30 bn on improving quality of combustion engine cars
Hyundai Motor Group will invest 63 trillion won ($50 billion) in its domestic businesses through 2025 to strengthen its competitiveness in electrifi...
May 25, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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