메리츠종금증권이 최근 약 1조원이 넘는 부동산 프로젝트파이낸싱(PF) 일부를 생명보험사와 손해보험사 등에 매각했다. 이번 매각은 내년 7월부터 부동산PF 채무보증 규모를 자기자본의 100%이내로 축소 해야 하는 규정을 따르기 위한 움직임으로 보인다. 또한 올해 초대형투자은행(IB) 신청을 앞두고 선제적으로 금융시장 규정들을 따르기 위한 움직임으로 해석되고 있다. 31일 업계에 따르면 최근 메리츠종금증권이 1조 2천억원 규모의 부동산PF를 손해보험과 생명보험사 등에 매각했다고 밝혔다. 인수자로는 KDB생명, IBK연금보험, 동양생명 등이 거론 되고 있다. 익명을 요구한 업계관계자는 “코로나바이러스로 인해 위험이 상대적으로 낮은 투자자산을 원하는 투자자들에게 초우량자산을 매각 한 것,”이라고 밝히며, “앞으로 추가 부동산PF 매각이 예정되어 있다,”라고 말했다. 메리츠종금증권의 채무보증 규모는 지난해 말 약 8조원으로 자기자본금액 약 3

Over the past few months since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, some employees of Hyundai Development Company, a local real estate developer under the pan-Hyundai empire, have been walking on thin ice. The market is facing a pandemic test, they said, pointing out the company’s landmark deal to acquire Asiana Airlines, the nation’s second-largest air carrier. The market hit by once-in-a-generation crisis could undermine the financial soundness of the company, not to mention

Mirae Asset Global Investments, a Korean asset management firm, has been cementing its leadership in the local personal pension fund market with assets under its management continuing to grow this year. Personal pension and retirement pension funds operated by Mirae Asset have reached a combined 7.59 trillion won ($6.3 billion), or 3.63 trillion won and 3.96 trillion won, respectively. As of this year, the pension funds had increased by 500 billion won, the highest increase in the local mark

South Korea’s state pension fund said Wednesday that it will take a final stance Thursday on the family feud centering on management control of Hanjin KAL, holding company of Hanjin Group which runs Korean Air. A trust management committee under the state-run National Pension Service, which holds 2.9 percent stake in Hanjin KAL, will decide on its vote on the reappointment of Cho Won-tae, chairman of Hanjin Group, at a shareholders meeting scheduled Friday. It is widely expected that

As the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to cause an economic contraction worldwide, South Korean conglomerates, the main locomotives of the nation’s economy, are increasingly borrowing money from banks in a bid to improve liquidity, according to data Tuesday. The loan balance of Korean conglomerates at five banks -- KB Kookmin Bank, Shinhan Bank, Woori Bank, Hana Bank and NH Bank -- came in at 78.7 trillion won ($62.9 billion) as of Friday, up 1.78 trillion won from late February. T

Amid the accelerating volatility of South Korea’s stock market, discontent is brewing over foreign investors, accused of being responsible with their rampant short selling. Short sellers, either institutional investors or foreign investors here, place bets on stocks that they think would fall in value. They sell borrowed shares in companies, and later repurchase them at lower prices to profit, which is called short covering. Short selling is often criticized for causing excessive pric

Highly volatile exchange rates and dampened investment sentiment around the world are now posing challenges to South Korea’s asset management firms, which have been accelerating their expansion into global real estate markets in recent years, according to market watchers. Seeking out new opportunities beyond the nation, Korean investment companies have inked a number of multibillion-dollar deals to acquire flagship buildings in cities around the world. The most prominent deal, among othe

Fintech platform operator Viva Republica said Wednesday that it has received preliminary approval to run a stock trading business from the nation’s financial watchdog, the Financial Services Commission. In order to run the stock business in a safe and stable manner, the company, which runs peer-to-peer money transfer app Toss, will beef up workforce and upgrade systems in the coming months before receiving final approval from the financial authority, the Seoul-based financial technolog

Major shareholders of logistics giant Hanjin KAL on Wednesday rebelled against proxy advisory firms Korea Corporate Governance Service and Institutional Shareholder Service for their decision to support the extension of Chairman Cho Won-tae’s term. The group consists of his elder sister and former Korean Air Vice President Cho Hyun-ah, KCGI -- local activist fund, Hanjin’s biggest shareholder with 18.68 percent stake -- and construction firm Bando Construction. “The latest d

South Korea’s leading online-only bank Kakao Bank announced Tuesday that Yoon Ho-young, who headed the bank as co-CEO, will now serve as the company’s sole chief. The online bank has been managed by Yoon and former co-CEO Lee Yong-woo -- who were respectively from mobile messenger firm Kakao and investment company Korea Investment & Securities. The two companies are major shareholders of the bank. Since Lee left the company in January to run for parliamentary election sched

South Korea’s Mirae Asset Financial Group has invested some $150 million in Impossible Foods, a US-based startup that produces meat alternatives, according to reports Monday. Mirae Asset, along with several financial investors, participated in the latest funding round,” an investment banking source was quoted as saying by Financial News. “Mirae Asset was the only Korean firm and appears to be paying attention to the fast-growing meat alternative market.” Founded in 2

The fast-spreading novel coronavirus outbreak has erased $16.7 trillion market capitalization in global stock markets, according to news reports Sunday. The overall market cap in 86 nations dropped 18.7 percent, from $89. 2 trillion on Jan. 20 to $72.5 trillion on March 12, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The market cap loss during the volatile past few weeks is approximately tenfold that of South Korea’s nominal gross domestic product, standing at $1.6 trillion in 2019. Th

The coronavirus outbreak, now declared to be a pandemic by the World Health Organization this week, has started to send shockwaves across the global economy and markets that have prospered for years on the back of ultra-low interest rates, relatively stable energy prices and the increased productivity of the corporate sector. The economic shock of COVID-19 could be a lot like the 2008 financial meltdown, economists have warned, reminding investors of South Korea’s painful past 12 years ag

[EMPOWERING WOMEN FINANCIERS]  The Korea Herald is publishing a series of articles to shed light on efforts to transform South Korea’s financial market by having more women financiers both at working and leadership levels and the challenges they face. This is the first installment. -- Ed.  The industry-wide campaign to “break the glass ceiling” has been going on for years, with little progress so far, particularly in South Korea’s financial market which is

Korean chemical materials manufacturers Kolon Industries and SKC have sold their stakes in SKC Kolon PI, a polyimide film maker, for some 300 billion won ($250 million) in a bid to acquire seed funding to nurture new businesses, according to the two companies on Monday. Kosdaq-listed SKC Kolon PI is a joint venture established by Kolon Industries and SKC in 2008. It is the world’s largest polyimide film company, with 30 percent market share in the sector. PI film is utilized in variou

South Korean construction company Daelim Industrial has completed the takeover of Carliflex, a chemical business unit of Kraton, a US firm that produces specialty polymers and chemical products derived from pine wood pulping byproducts. Through the acquisition, worth $530 million, Daelim has gained Carliflex’s operations and workforce overseas, in the US, Germany, Belgium, Japan and Singapore. “The production technology for high-performance butadiene-based rubber that the compa

South Korea’s state pension fund said Friday that it would exercise its voting rights at Hanjin KAL, the holding firm of logistics conglomerate Hanjin Group, an apparent move to intervene in an ongoing leadership feud among the founding family members. “The National Pension Service has decided to exercise its voting rights at Hanjin KAL and GIIR on its own after retrieving them from its proxy agents,” said the state-run pension fund operator after a meeting among its commit

As the deadly coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) is sparking fears of a global pandemic, investors in South Korea are flocking to safe haven assets, gold in particular, according to data Friday. The accumulative transactions of gold in the first two months of this year at the Korea Gold Exchange, a private gold exchange here, stood at 27,243, up 192 percent from the same period last year. The exchange said investors’ increasing preference toward safe haven assets is behind the drastic gro

The National Assembly on Thursday rejected a proposed bill to ease regulations for online-only banks, which will deal a heavy blow to K bank, one of South Korea’s two online banks that is struggling to raise additional funds due to regulatory hurdles. The bill was unexpectedly voted down 82:75 with 27 abstaining at the plenary session, although it received the green light from the legislation and judiciary committee a day before, raising anticipation it would boost the fintech industry

An increasing number of multiple homeowners in South Korea are choosing to give real estate to their children instead of selling it, data showed Wednesday. The number of apartments transferred from parents to children stood at 1,632 in January -- an increase of 305 from December and the third-highest jump since the compilation of relevant data began in 2006, the Korea Appraisal Board said. Meanwhile, separate data released by the Seoul City government showed that apartment transactions in