Korea Development Bank, South Korea’s policy lender, on Wednesday refused to support the liquidity-stricken SsangYong Motor using its bailout fund of 40 trillion won ($32.95 billion) created to extend a lifeline to local companies suffering from the fallout of the novel coronavirus. “Money is not necessarily everything for a company’s survival,” KDB Chairman Lee Dong-gull told reporters at a teleconference. “It takes money for a company to get through hardships, bu

MP Group, the South Korean company that controls pizza restaurant franchise Mr. Pizza and coffee chain Manoffin, is seeking to sell a controlling stake through an open bidding process, its announcement showed Wednesday. Up for grabs will be a 48.92 percent stake in MP Group by founder and ex-chairman Jung Woo-hyun and owner families, as well as an undisclosed amount of new shares worth at least 20 billion won ($16.43 million). Proposals from potential buyers will be accepted until 5 p.m. on Ju

Seizure treatment developer SK Biopharmaceuticals said Monday it is planning what could be South Korea’s biggest initial public offering in three years, with hopes to raise nearly 1 trillion won ($822 million) in fresh funds. Through its market debut on the nation’s main bourse Kospi, scheduled July 2 if the IPO ends in success, the drug development unit of Korea’s third-largest conglomerate SK plans to raise 959.34 billion won, which would be the largest fundraising attempt s

The Korea Exchange, an exchange operator where securities, derivatives and commodities are traded, said Sunday its daily average of gold transactions had doubled this year as investors sought safe assets and a tax benefit took hold in January. The KRX has been trading on average of 93.6 kilograms of gold per day on its spot market from January until June 11, up 114.8 percent from the 2019 average at 43.6 kilograms. At the same time, the spot gold price on the KRX surged 18 percent. Besides i

South Korea’s main stock bourse Kospi slipped 2 percent Friday in its biggest daily loss in over a month, as stock markets in the United States took another major blow due to resurfacing coronavirus woes. Kospi closed at 2,132.30 on Friday. Losers outnumbered gainers 720 to 160. As numbers of infections rose in some of the states that have reopened, including Texas and Arizona, both stocks and crude tumbled in the US on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 6.9 percent, S

　공유오피스 업체 위워크코리아가 (WeWork Korea) 전 직원을 상대로 희망퇴직 신청을 받았던 것으로 확인돼, 한국 사업 철수 수순에 들어간게 아니냐는 우려가 커지고 있다. 　업계 관계자들에 따르면, 위워크코리아는 지난주 희망퇴직 신청을 받기 시작했고, 일부 직원들은 이미 타 공유오피스 업체 등으로 이직을 제안 받거나, 고려 중이라고 전했다. 　위워크코리아는 작년에도 본사 차원의 구조조정의 일환으로 한국 지점내 커뮤니티 매니저 인력 감축을 단행했다. 　연이은 인력감축이 이어지자, 다른 한 관계자는 “위워크 본사에서 한국에서 철수하고 싶어하는 의지가 있는 것으로 파악된다”면서, 철수를 원하는 본사와 적자인 지점들을 정리하면서 사업을 유지할려는 위워크코리아간의 마찰이 있다고 말했다. 　 　이에 위워크코리아 측은 “전혀 사실이 아니다”라고 부인하면서도, 희망퇴직 신청에 대해선 “공식 입장은 없다”고 밝혔다.

Shared working space operator WeWork’s Korean subsidiary has offered its employees a voluntary retirement last week as part of its restructuring plan, sources with knowledge about the matter told The Korea Herald on Thursday. “The voluntary retirement scheme was offered to the entire staff last week,” said a source on condition of anonymity. The scheme is in line with WeWork headquarters’ bid “to shut down the Korean operations,” another source told The Kor

South Korea’s asset management companies’ combined net profit has shrunk by over half on-year in the first quarter, data showed Thursday. The net income of 300 AMCs here came to 116.4 billion won ($97.32 million) during the January-March period, down 52.3 percent from the previous year, according to data by the Financial Supervisory Service. The volume fell 11.4 percent on-quarter. Their return on equity -- a key measure of financial performance -- stood at 6.1 percent in the firs

Samsung Asset Management said Wednesday it has launched a fund to pool South Korean retail investor’s money into a signature fund by London-based quantitative hedge fund manager Man AHL. By investing in Man AHL’s TargetRisk fund, the Korean feeder fund is expected to offer capital growth through a long-only exposure, under which the fund manager takes advantage of profit opportunities by betting solely on undervalued assets. The Korean feeder fund, dubbed Samsung MAN Investment Ba

Mirae Asset Financial Group founder Park Hyeon-joo has backed a total of 315,119 students over two decades as Park donated his dividend income, the group said Monday. The fund was offered through Mirae Asset Park Hyeon-joo Foundation, established in 2000. The donations went to scholarships to over 9,000 college students, or roughly 700 students each year since 2007. Of the total, some 60 percent of students participated in exchange student programs, for which the Mirae Asset Park Hyeon-joo

Shinhan BNP Paribas said Sunday it has clinched a combined 520 billion won ($430.1 million) commitment to create a fund to support small firms dedicated to 280-megawatt solar energy projects across South Korea. The Seoul-based asset management firm’s deal comes amid growing new and renewable energy momentum buttressed by the nation’s recent environment initiative, called “green new deal,” aimed at investing in environmentally-friendly energy businesses and creating jobs

New York-based provider of exchange-traded funds Global X ETFs has launched an emerging markets bond ETF in its first actively managed strategy, its parent Mirae Asset Global Investments said Thursday. The product, dubbed Global X Emerging Markets Bond ETF, is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. It will target US dollar-denominated securities including fixed-rate and floating-rate debt instruments issued by sovereign, quasi-sovereign, and corporate entities from emerging market countries. T

France-based international private investment house Ardian said Wednesday it seeks to accelerate its push for more secondary investments in Asia, as the company has reached a historic-high $19 billion commitments to its new secondary fund from global investors. Secondary investment refers to a purchase of existing private assets and is considered a source of liquidity for institutional investors. The latest fundraising is expected to underpin Ardian’s position as a lead secondary investo

South Korea’s investment firm Mirae Asset Global Investments said Wednesday it is eyeing its first initial public offering for its real estate investment trust followed by a listing on the nation’s main bourse Kospi. The REIT is designed to invest in a commercial space of the commercial-residential complex dubbed Gwanggyo Central Prugio City. The real estate asset is located in a planned city of Gwanggyo in Gyeonggi Province, located some 25 kilometers south of Seoul. The REIT is e

South Korean social casino game developer and publisher DoubleDown Interactive is seeking to get listed on the tech-heavy Nasdaq bourse in the United States, according to its prospectus Wednesday. For its initial public offering, the Seoul-based company plans to issue 400,000 new common shares. Also up for subscriptions will be 360,000 existing shares, or 19.4 percent stake as of current, owned by STIC Investment. DoubleDown Interactive said the book building process to confirm the offered pri

Seoul-based Shinhan BNP Paribas Asset Management said Tuesday it has started to work as a fund manager for the National Health Insurance Service’s 1.4 trillion won ($1.14 billion) alternative investment for four years.  Shinhan BNP Paribas is one of the two lead fund managers, along with fellow Seoul-based investment house KB Asset Management. The two partners, selected in late April, will manage 700 billion won of assets each and choose more external partners to join their funds of

Real estate expert Samit Chopra was named managing director of WeWork Pacific, it announced Tuesday. Chopra is tasked with overseeing markets of the space-as-a-service platform, including Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Based in Singapore, Chopra will be responsible for WeWork Pacific’s profit and loss management, go-to-market strategy, sales leadership, growth and innovation and talent development, according to WeWork.

Seoul-based Hanwha Asset Management said Tuesday it is betting on new growth opportunities of companies dedicated to e-commerce, data infrastructure and health care by creating a fund investing in such stocks at home and abroad. The strategy comes amid consumer concerns about face-to-face contact amid the worldwide coronavirus outbreak, which rather translates into higher demand for companies in such sectors, company officials said. The demand stems from changes in people’s lifestyle,

South Korea’s same-day laundry service startup Laundrygo said Tuesday it had raised a 17 billion won ($13.9 million) series B round funding from multiple venture capital houses, amid growing demand for daily life services offered without physical contact in the pandemic era. New investors in the latest round include Korea Investment Partners, Aju IB Investment, KT Investment, Samsung Venture Investment, DS Asset Management. Existing investors Altos Ventures and Hana Ventures also joined

Seoul-based KB Asset Management said Monday it has launched an open-ended fund that invests in exchange-traded funds at home and abroad, powered by its own artificial neural network for automated portfolio allocation. The new ETF managed portfolio fund, dubbed KB All Asset AI Solution Fund, will target various ETFs -- or a basket of securities -- that each track asset classes such as stocks, bonds, loans, real estate investment trusts and commodities. Its portfolio will be automatically rebal