Doosan Infracore, South Korea’s largest construction equipment maker, plans to list its unit Doosan Bobcat on Korea’s stock exchange this year to raise money to reduce debts. Doosan Bobcat, a subsidiary of Doosan Infracore, said Tuesday that it is seeking an underwriter for an initial public offering following Monday’s board meeting where the company chose Korea as its listing venue. Acquired by Doosan Infracore in 2007 for $4.9 billion from Irish manufacturer Ingersoll-Rand, Doosan Bobcat has 3

Four South Koreans were killed and two others were critically injured in Laos Sunday when their mini-bus collided head-on with a bus, Seoul's Foreign Ministry said.The accident took place in the Kasi area north of Vientiane, leaving the Laotian driver dead as well.The mini-bus was carrying six South Koreans. Three women and one man, all in their 50s or 60s, are dead, the ministry said. A man and a woman with similar ages were injured.They were among a group of South Korean Buddhists visiting Lao

The United States and China are in a critical phase in their drawn-out talks on the level of U.N. punishment against North Korea for its nuclear and missile provocations, government sources here said Sunday."The two sides have made considerable progress in core contents" of the envisioned U.N. resolution, a source said, requesting anonymity.South Korean officials expect a draft resolution to be circulated to the other members of the U.N. Security Council within this week.But they remain cautious

Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that a "provisional agreement” has been reached on a cease-fire that could begin in the next few days in Syria's five-year civil war.Kerry said he spoke in the morning with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss terms of a ceasefire and the two now must reach out to the parties in the conflict. "There is a stark choice for everybody here,” Kerry said. He declined to go into the details of the agreement because all parties need to be fully cons

South Korea’s outbound shipments are expected to fall by up to 0.5 percent in 2016 from a year ago amid tepid global demand, a report showed Sunday.  (Yonhap)“Sluggish global demand, and weaker European and Japanese currencies will drag down the nation’s exports by 0.4 to 0.5 percent in 2016 compared to 2015,” said the report compiled by the Export-Import Bank of Korea.The report underlined the increasing uncertainties of the Chinese economy and the impact of the U.S. interest rate hike as key f

Korean bank customers will soon be able to make online transactions without using security cards or one-time passwords as the government is seeking ways to make online payments easier so as to drive innovation in the sector, financial authorities said Sunday. (123rf)“As a part of financial reforms, we plan to abolish the mandatory use of password-based authentication system by revising online financial transaction regulations during the first half of this year,” said an official from the Financi

Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun said she would donate some 30 billion won ($24.4 million) of her personal funds in a bid to revive her group’s cash-strapped shipping unit Hyundai Merchant Marine, the firm said Thursday.  Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun“We have decided to raise share capital by issuing 6 million shares (at 5,000 won apiece) through a third-party allotment,” Hyundai Merchant Marine said in a regulatory filing. Hyun and her mother Kim Moon-hee will buy around 30 bil

The Chinese arm of South Korea’s biggest entertainment agency, SM Entertainment, is expected to list its shares in China following its partnership with Alibaba, a local brokerage said Thursday. EXO (SM Entertainment)The K-pop giant established two corporate entities, in Beijing and Shanghai -- both 100 percent owned by SM Entertainment -- through its subsidiary Dream Maker Entertainment in late 2015. “Dream Maker has the possibility to go public on the stock market in mainland China or Hong Kong

South Korea’s stock market will see another booming year with a record-high volume of initial public offerings in 2016, but a bearish market sentiment could hamper expectations, analysts said. Korea Exchange and Eugene Investment & Securities expect this year to rank as the best for IPOs with over 130 companies going public on the main bourse KOSPI and the secondary tech-heavy KOSDAQ to raise a combined 11 trillion won ($9 billion), beating the record high of 10.9 trillion won in 2010. Despite r

Local banks and brokerage firms are rushing to attract more customers ahead of a new regulation that would allow the entry of a new savings product entailing bigger tax benefits, industry sources said Tuesday. (Yonhap)Starting from March 14, lenders and securities companies will be able to introduce the tax-exempt Individual Savings Account.With the ISA, users can manage a broad range of financial products including cash deposits, funds and stock investment accounts, from a single account. The g

World powers Friday agreed an ambitious plan to cease hostilities in war-racked Syria, but the Munich deal left out the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda's local branch, leaving analysts to doubt its viability.The 17 countries agreed "to implement a nationwide cessation of hostilities to begin in a target of one week's time," said US Secretary of State John Kerry after extended talks co-hosted by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.The International Syria Support Group also agreed that "sustai

Police said Friday they have strengthened security measures as tensions rise on the Korean Peninsula following North Korea's recent nuclear and long-range rocket tests.Kang Sin-myeong, the National Police Agency (NPA) Commissioner-General, has ordered local police agencies and stations to establish and intensively execute field training exercise (FTX) plans, according to the NPA.The instructions were made a few days after North Korea launched a long-range rocket carrying a satellite in what the

The South Korean stock market nosedived on the first trading session after the Lunar New Year holiday Thursday, battered by concerns over the gloomy global economy and geopolitical risks stemmed from North Korea’s long-range rocket launch. An electronic board behind the statues of a bear and bull, the symbols of the fall and rise of stocks, installed inside Korea Exchange in Seoul, shows a plunge in the KOSPI and KOSDAQ indexes Thursday, as they were affected by a sharp fall in global stock mark

South Korea ranked top among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries in terms of research and development spending as a proportion of gross domestic product, a report showed Thursday.According to the OECD report on the global state of science, technology and industry, Korea has superseded Israel as the world’s most R&D intensive country, spending 4.29 percent of GDP for this purpose in 2014. OECD countries spent an average of 2.37 percent of their GDP, the same level

The government’s 21 trillion won ($17.4 billion) fiscal stimulus for the first quarter of the year will be insufficient to offset the growing downside pressure on the economy, analysts said Thursday.  Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho speaks at a meeting with economy-related ministers in Seoul on Wednesday. (Yonhap)Following a spate of disappointing economic data, the government unveiled Wednesday a new stimulus package which includes an extra 6 trillion won in public spending on top of the original 13

Consumer confidence has slipped in January to a six-month low as households fretted about the economic outlook on the back of China’s slowdown and stock market tumble.The composite consumer sentiment index for January came to 100, compared with 102 the previous month, according to the data released by the Bank of Korea on Wednesday.(Yonhap)“Consumers view on their financial situation got worsened as recent oil price drop and China’s sluggish economy weighed on their outlook for the country’s eco

The fourth-quarter reporting season kicked off Tuesday amid low expectations as Korea’s listed firms continue to suffer from sluggish exports and a global slowdown.This week, some 32 companies listed on the main KOSPI bourse are planning to report their results for the October-December period in 2015.Analysts have been constantly revising down their outlook amid a series of weak quarterly performance reports by major Korean companies despite their efforts to restructure operations throughout las

The Korea Herald  publishes a series of articles looking at the performance of various sectors on Korea’s main bourse KOSPI. The following is the first installment. -- Ed.The Korean cosmetics industry will continue to be a bright spot for investors as companies continue to expand overseas beyond the Asian market with strong sales of skin care products at duty-free shops abroad expected to underpin strong growth, analysts said. Customers cram a duty-free store located at Lotte World Tower in Jams

An appeals court on Thursday ruled in favor of the government and dismissed a compensation suit filed by South Korean atomic bomb victims, who were conscripted into the Japanese military or drafted to work in Japan during its 1910-45 colonial rule.Upholding a lower court's ruling, the Seoul High Court turned down the suit filed by 79 members of an association of Korean victims of the 1945 Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings.The plaintiffs filed the suit in August 2013, representing some 2,600

A former employee of at the Seoul branch of U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs was slapped with a fine Thursday for selling structured notes without the government's approval. In South Korea, only registered brokerage houses can create structured notes by packaging debt with derivatives to offer customized bets, but the New York-based lender was not authorized to make such deals. The former chief of Goldman Sachs' Seoul branch was indicted in October on charges of selling six structured notes li