HYBE Chair Bang referred to prosecutors over alleged unfair trading
South Korea’s financial watchdog has referred Bang Si-hyuk, founder and chairman of K-pop powerhouse HYBE Co., to prosecutors over alleged fra...
Test case looms for Korea’s revised Commercial Act as VIP Asset challenges Lotte Rental’s rights issue to Affinity
Lotte Rental Co., South Korea’s No. 1 car rental and leasing company, is facing a backlash from a key minority shareholder over its planned ri...
Samsung supplies newest nanoprism image sensors to Xiaomi to crack Sony’s lead
Samsung Electronics Co. is supplying a new high-performance image sensor featuring nanoprism technology to China’s Xiaomi, as the South Korean...
Korea’s game studios rebrand as AI tech firms, move into fashion, robotics, media
What was once a world of elves, dragons and power-ups is now giving rise to one of South Korea’s most unexpected tech revolutions, with game s...
IMM Credit closes $700 mn blind credit fund backed by NPS
IMM Credit & Solutions Inc. (ICS), the private credit unit of South Korea’s major investment firm IMM Holdings Inc., has raised nearly 1 t...
Hahn & Co. to award bonus shares to Namyang staff, retires $7.1 mn in shares
Seoul-based private equity firm Hahn & Co. will award employees of Namyang Dairy Products Co., a South Korean dairy product producer, 1.6 billio...
Shinsegae, Hana Financial, Bain Capital to finance $438 mn Starfield Cheongna
Shinsegae Property, a subsidiary of South Korean retail giant Shinsegae Group, on Tuesday unveiled a 600 billion won ($438 million) investment agree...
Saudi Crown Prince bin Salman courts Korean AI startups as Riyadh, Abu Dhabi vie to build tech hubs
Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the Middle East was a land of opportunity for many South Korean construction workers, who labored there under the scorc...
Samsung to buy US health tech firm Xealth in digital health push
Samsung Electronics Co. will acquire Xealth, a US-based healthcare platform provider, as it steps up efforts to foster non-semiconductor businesses ...
Korean waste management firm Koentec put on market for $730 mn
Korea Environment Technology Co. (Koentec) is up for sale in a deal that could fetch up to 1 trillion won ($730.4 million) with global private equit...
Celltrion secures $730 mn to buy biosimilar unit shares, pursue M&A
Celltrion Holdings Co. has secured 1 trillion won ($732 million) in fresh funding and plans to spend half of it this year to buy shares in its biosi...
Yonsei University: Unlikely yet adroit dealmaker in S.Korea’s M&A market
For decades, or probably for centuries, Yonsei University has been seen as an ivory tower – a place for academics – in South Korea.One o...
Taekwang, Anchor Equity shortlisted for Aekyung stake
Taekwang Industrial Co., a South Korean chemical and textile company, and Anchor Equity Partners, a Hong Kong-based private equity firm, have emerge...
Goldman Sachs acquires Mercure Ambassador: 1st stint with Korean hotels
Goldman Sachs, in partnership with JB Asset Management Co., has acquired Mercure Ambassador Seoul Hongdae, a prominent mixed-use commercial property...
NH, KB Securities, Kookmin Bank, Kim & Chang lead capital markets in H1
NH Investment & Securities Co. retained its lead in South Korea’s equity capital market (ECM) in the first half, riding a surge in large-s...
GEPS taps former KB Asset chief risk officer as new CIO
South Korea’s Government Employees Pension Service (GEPS) on Wednesday appointed Sohn Young-jin, former head of risk management at KB Asset Ma...
Affinity Equity nets $220 mn from block sale of Shinhan Financial
Affinity Equity Partners has unloaded its remaining shares in Shinhan Financial Group, the second largest banking group in South Korea, for about 58...
Loss-making Lotte Chemical to sell water treatment unit to Synopex
Lotte Chemical Corp., South Korea’s second-largest petrochemical company grappling with mounting losses amid a prolonged industry downturn, wi...
Google to invest $100 mn in Gentle Monster in smart glasses push
Google LLC has signed an agreement to invest about 145.0 billion won ($100 million) in Gentle Monster, the South Korean fashion eyewear brand that i...
Naver Financial seeks to acquire S. Korean real estate data platform Asil
Naver Financial Corp., the fintech subsidiary of South Korean tech giant Naver Corp., is looking to acquire Asil, a domestic big data-based real est...
Calls grow for stronger LP oversight in national strategic asset M&As
MBK Partners’ takeover attempt of Korea Zinc Inc. has exposed the vulnerability of national strategic assets to private equity ownership, posi...
Affirma Capital to acquire Equis’ Korean waste assets for $294 million
Affirma Capital, a Singapore-headquartered buyout private equity firm, has agreed to acquire the entire portfolio of South Korean waste processing a...
LG CNS forms strategic partnership with robotics startup Skild AI
LG CNS Co., the information technology service arm of LG Group, said on Tuesday it has formed a strategic partnership with Skild AI to develop AI-dr...
CJ CGV under pressure to shed China, Vietnam cinema assets
MBK Partners and Mirae Asset Securities Co. are considering divesting of their holdings in CGI Holdings Co., which oversees CJ CGV Co.’s multi...
Partners Group sees infrastructure secondaries quadrupling to $60 bn
Infrastructure secondaries are gaining momentum as the infrastructure sector attracts investors seeking stable and predictable returns amid heighten...
MBK-invested Homeplus looks for new owner as M&A emerges as option
South Korea’s leading hypermarket chain Homeplus Co. is once again up for sale, a decade after private equity firm MBK Partners Ltd. took it p...
S.Korea’s No.1 dried seaweed firm Kwangcheonkim on market for $295 mn
Kwangcheonkim Co., South Korea’s largest seaweed producer with a history spanning over 50 years, is up for grabs in a deal that could fetch up...
Lotte Chemical, HD Hyundai seek to combine naphtha cracking facilities
Lotte Chemical Corp. and HD Hyundai Co. are in talks to consolidate their naphtha cracking operations in South Korea’s Daesan petrochemical co...
POSCO Future M breaks with China in cathode supply chain
GWANGYANG, SOUTH JEOLLA – POSCO Future M Co., South Korea’s leading battery materials maker, has secured itself a China-free cathode mat...
Proxy voting rises in South Korea, but few vetoes cast
An increasing number of asset management firms in South Korea are more frequently exercising their voting rights at portfolio companies. Nevertheles...
