Big Hit Entertainment, the company behind K-pop sensation BTS, on Wednesday filed an application for initial public offering, according to its regulatory filing. The company said in the filing that it would offer 7.13 million shares at a price between 105,000 won ($88.50) and 135,000 won. It will carry out the book building procedure to gauge demand on Sept. 14-25 for global investors and Sept. 24-25 for the domestic market. NH Investment & Securities, Korea Investment & Securities,

South Korean commercial bank KB Kookmin Bank said Wednesday that it has launched a mobile app to help churchgoers manage the donations they give to their local churches. Amid the emergence of a new strain of the novel coronavirus, the service has been launched to help Protestants donate without physically visiting a church. The digital offering envelope resembles actual envelopes used at local churches. Christians can also send prayers with their donations. Starting with an app for Protes

Toss Lab, an operator of Slack-like team collaboration platform JANDI, said Wednesday that it has newly raised 14 billion won ($11.8 million) from a group of investors. The investors include Softbank Ventures, SV Investment, Atinum Investment, Must Investment and Spark Labs. Along with the new investment, the company also named big-name figures in the startup and investment sectors as outside directors, including Shin Hyun-sung, founder of ecommerce firm TMON, Lee Joon-pyo, chief of inves

Tenspace, a Seoul-based credit scoring services firm, said Wednesday that it has recently joined forces with Singaporean lender Money World to run a joint venture named Aster World, which offers microloans in Southeast Asia. Although demand for credit loans has increased in the region, the infrastructure for credit scoring is not mature enough. The new joint venture will offer lending services based on alternative credit rating measures to make up for the outdated credit rating system in th

Commercial bank Shinhan Bank said Tuesday that it has joined forces with mobile network firm SK Telecom to develop financial services based on 5G mobile edge computing technology. The mobile edge computing, or MEC, is a core 5G technology that helps reduce network latency and process data efficiently by installing small-sized data centers at base stations. Through the partnership, the two companies will launch R&D projects to design advanced financial services based on the 5G technology,

This is the second installment in a series of articles, interviews and videos assessing the future of credit cards and the challenges ahead. -- Ed. On the ninth floor of Hyundai Card’s Card Factory, where 5 million plastic credit cards are produced every year, a barista named Billie makes coffee every day. The machine learning-powered robot, trained by award-winning Korean barista Lee Jong-hoon, has his own employee identification number: 410713. While the robot brews coffee, human c

KB Financial Group said Thursday that it has received approval from the Financial Services Commission to acquire Prudential Life Insurance of Korea. In April, the Korean financial giant inked a deal with Prudential to buy a 100 percent stake in the insurance company for some 2.3 trillion won ($1.94 billion). It is scheduled to pay for the acquisition by Monday. When the deal closes, the insurance firm will become the financial group’s 13th subsidiary. The takeover of the nation&rsquo

South Korea’s patent office, the Korea Intellectual Property Office, said Tuesday that it has completed registration of the nation’s first patent for a booth that enables people to get tested for the new coronavirus quickly and with minimal risk to medical workers. The patent was filed in May by Kim Sang-il, chief director of H Plus Yangji Hospital, a medical center in Seoul, and the registration process was completed Aug. 24, according to the patent office. First deployed in the

Kim Dae-ji, the new chief of South Korea’s tax authority, the National Tax Service, vowed Friday that the tax office would give full support for small and midsized businesses reeling from the lingering coronavirus pandemic while strictly enforcing rules against tax evasion. “The tax office will try to deploy measures to help overcome the coronavirus crisis and prop up the economy by lightening the tax burden on entrepreneurs and small-business owners,” said Kim at his inau

While nearly all industries have been affected by the lingering coronavirus pandemic, South Korea’s startup scene is showing resilience with local startups successfully attracting funds. Superbin, a startup that develops solutions for recycling plastic debris, announced this week that it raised 20 billion won ($16.8 million) in Series B funding recently. Investors participating in the funding round included portal giant Naver-backed investment firm TBT and set-top box maker Humax, bo

South Korean shares tanked Tuesday, following resurging coronavirus cases in Seoul and surrounding areas. The benchmark Kospi closed down 59.25 points, or 2.46 percent, to 2,348.24 points while the tech-heavy Kosdaq declined 34.81 points, or 4.17 percent, to close at 800.22 points. The Kospi, which remained above the 2400-level in recent days, dropped below the threshold as fears of a resurgence of COVID-19 spooked investors. Korea added 246 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, after reporting 1

Financial behemoth KB Financial Group and gaming firm NCSoft are planning to set up a joint investment firm specialized in offering investment consulting services based on artificial intelligence technology, news reports said Monday. The two companies have recently started discussing the establishment of the joint venture, and the planned joint company will likely be operated under KB subsidiary KB Securities. The partnership is seen as an unusual move as few gaming companies here participa

To reduce volatility in the stock market exacerbated by the novel coronavirus pandemic, lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Party are pushing to extend the six-month ban on short selling, news reports said Monday. Short selling, or shorting, is a strategy of borrowing, selling and repurchasing a stock to return it to the lender. In effect, short sellers are betting on a drop in stock prices. The practice, often conducted by institutional investors and offshore investors, has received flak f

Cashless stores, digital payment and contactless banking all existed before the pandemic swept South Korea’s retail markets. What’s different now is that walletless services have gained dominance as a payment method, accelerating the nation’s shift to a cashless society. Concerned about the new coronavirus, people are increasingly using mobile services to order food and other necessities online instead of dining out or buying their clothes at brick-and-mortar stores. During t

Despite dark clouds over the performance of South Korea’s stock market this year, the main bourse Kospi is bucking the regional trend and appears to be recovering quickly. It is now largely driven by the subdued virus impact here, quantitative easing policies around the world and hopes for COVID-19 vaccines. Local stock brokers even predicted that the recent market rally would continue until the end of 2020. Hyundai Motor Investment Securities is one of the brokerage firms that have

The South Korean government said Wednesday that it will soon announce the results of its inspections into illegal transactions involving expensive real estate in Seoul and the surrounding areas. “Having tracked transactions of expensive houses reported earlier this year, state agencies found some irregularities, and the government will announce the final results in August,” said Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki at a meeting with related ministers. “The

Sheraton Seoul Palace Gangnam Hotel, the first five-star hotel in Seoul’s posh district of Gangnam, is up for sale again after a sales deal earlier this year fell through due to the new coronavirus pandemic, according to reports Friday. Seojoo Industry Development, a local developer and the current owner of the high-end hotel, has reportedly appointed local brokerage Samsung Securities and real estate services firm CBRE Korea as lead managers of the planned deal. The local developer

South Korean asset management company Mirae Asset Global Investments said Friday that two new exchange traded funds focused on semiconductors, robots and artificial intelligence businesses in China have been listed on the Hong Kong Exchange and Clearing, the sole securities and derivatives exchange in Hong Kong. The Chinese chip sector has been fast growing in recent years in tandem with the growth of IT and internet platform businesses in the local market. Many Chinese companies, especially

South Korea’s stock market is on a bullish trend, with its main bourse Kospi setting record highs in recent weeks despite lingering concerns over the new coronavirus and its impact on the economy. Buying by foreigners and institutional investors drove the Kospi index to 2,352.48 points in early morning trading Thursday. On Wednesday, the index crossed the 2,300-point mark for the first time since Oct. 2, 2018, and ended at 2,331.86 points. Compared with a low of 1439.43 in March, the

South Korea’s largest internet-only bank said Wednesday that its number of monthly active users in June surpassed 11 million — the highest in the nation’s entire bank industry. Kakao Bank’s increasing number of users also boosted its earnings in the first half with its net profit standing at 45.3 billion won, nearly five times higher than the 9.6 billion won it posted a year earlier. In the second quarter alone, the net profit came in at 26.8 billion won. Increased