South Korea’s antitrust agency slapped the owner family of Hanjin Group with a 1.43 billion won ($1.2 million) fine for seeking personal gains from internal transactions between the group‘s key affiliate Korean Air and two other affiliates.The Fair Trade Commission will lodge a complaint against Cho Won-tae, the group’s apparent heir, to the prosecution, it said Sunday. The group’s flagship subsidiary Korean Air favored Cybersky, an online duty-free shopping unit, and exempted the company from p

Corporate split-ups as a means to raise stock value and make corporate governance more transparent have emerged as a recent trend in the South Korean securities market, with food companies the latest to join in. Orion Group, a leading confectionary manufacturer, decided late Tuesday to split the group into two entities -- Orion Holdings and Orion Corp. -- starting from June 1 next year.Orion Holdings will be in charge of controlling 17 non-confectionary subsidiaries and making new investments, w

  The country’s second-largest national holiday is less than a week away, but the mood in the retail industry this year is less upbeat than before, with consumers conscious of the anti-bribery law that soon takes effect. 　　Before the so-called “Kim Young-ran Law” was ruled constitutional in July, sending a box of Korean beef or dried yellow croaker fish as a gift was often a way of expressing gratitude to acquaintances during the Chuseok holiday. 　However, the new anti-graft law bans gifts of ov

The growing number of single households in Korea looks set to buoy stocks related to their lifestyles, according to a report by NH Investment & Securities. 　According to a 2015 census by Statistics Korea released earlier this week, the percentage of one-person households rose to 27.2 percent last year, surpassing households with two or more individuals for the first time. Such single households are projected to account for 34 percent of all households by 2035. 　“Such growth is expected to bring

South Korea’s central bank kept its key base rate unchanged at 1.25 percent for third straight month on Friday, as largely expected by market analysts, citing high household debt and uncertainties concerning the US Federal Reserve’s monetary policy.The decision to freeze its September rate was unanimous, as the Bank of Korea already noted in its minutes of last month’s policy committee meeting that a rapid increase in household debt was posing a risk to the economy.Also, the difficulty in foreca

　The fifth nuclear test by the North Korean regime had a slight impact on the South Korean stock market Friday, but it might affect the market longer than in the past as the North is getting more unpredictable, said the country’s financial regulator.  　The Kospi closed at 2,037.87, down 1.25 percent from Thursday.  　Seoul’s main bourse Kospi opened lower due to disappointment at the inaction of the European Central Bank overnight. It continued to fall below the 2,040 mark throughout the morning

Market expectations on a rate freeze by the Bank of Korea in its September meeting are gaining ground here as the chances for the Federal Reserve to raise its fund rate have been slashed due to a poorer-than-expected US jobless report.  　More and more analysts are betting that the Korean central bank would keep the benchmark borrowing rate at the current 1.25 percent at its Sept. 9 monetary policy meeting, shifting away from their previous forecasts of a rate increase. The previous rate cut to i

The South Korean government will consider expanding the number of ports of call across the globe for national vessels as part of measures to minimize the impact of Hanjin Shipping’s court receivership on the country’s exports. According to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries on Sunday, senior officials from nine economic-related ministries discussed additional measures to deal with the possible impact of the fallout of the country’s largest shipper that applied for a court receivership last Wed