South Korea’s major airlines are likely to suffer a sharp revenue decline due to the coronavirus outbreak, putting further pressure on their liquidity, according to market watchers Sunday. Flag carriers Korean Air and Asiana Airlines are facing a financial slump as services have been curtailed for now, but they are also facing the possibility of a debt crisis if the pandemic lingers. The market has been focusing on one of the frequent leveraging measures for Korean airlines, as they imm

South Korea’s market volatility is likely to continue as initial public offering plans for April are slipping through the cracks amid the coronavirus outbreak, according to market watchers Sunday. Sencoretech, a Seoul-based engineering firm dedicated to manufacturing steel structures, has withdrawn its listing plan on Kosdaq, which could have raised at least 27.16 billion won ($22.32 million). “Due to the high volatility caused by COVID-19, we decided to cancel the remaining proce

South Korean companies are bracing for a massive credit rating downgrade as the novel coronavirus spillover threatens their business outlook, according to industry sources Wednesday. The weakening prospect of retailers, petrochemical firms and manufacturers in the wake of the coronavirus spread appears to be putting pressure on their liquidity. On Tuesday, the credit outlook of three companies for straight bonds was revised to “negative,” according to three credit rating agencies -

Despite the government‘s bond-buying initiative aimed at shoring up liquidity, South Korea’s corporate bond market is rattled by changes in credit outlooks that reflect lingering uncertainties on falling oil prices and the COVID-19 pandemic. On Monday, Hanwha Solutions’ corporate bonds meant to raise 210 billion won were undersubscribed by institutional investors. Absent in the bidding was the vehicle dubbed the “bond market stabilization fund,” a state commitment

Investors in two funds of Lime Asset Management, a South Korean hedge fund that fell from grace on a deluge of scandals, are expected to lose over half of their money, according to redemption plans issued Monday. Investments in two master funds -- Pluto FI D-1, dedicated to privately placed bonds, and Tethys II, which targeted mezzanine instruments – were frozen due to illiquidity last year. Their total value will fall to a combined 534.7 billion won ($439.18 million) according to the pl

State-run policy lender Korea Development Bank is in talks with South Korea’s private equity firm JC Partners to sell a life insurer unit as part of its restructuring process, an industry source said Monday. JC Partners is the only bidder participating in the preliminary stage that is undergoing a due diligence for the acquisition, the source added. KDB said further details cannot be disclosed because the talks are ongoing with the potential buyer before signing a deal. “Regardi

Seoul-based global startup accelerator SparkLabs said Monday it has joined hands with nonbanking lender Shinhan Capital to create a 10.1 billion won ($8.28 million) fund to support early-stage startups. The vehicle is aimed at investing in SparkLabs alumni and other early-stage startups with growth potential, as well as secondary investing in fast-growing companies in the fields of health care, biotechnology and manufacturing. The fund is co-managed by SparkLabs and Shinhan Capital, and

Attention is centered on what is poised to become the only initial public offering deal in April, as investors are hinging on a change in market tides. Starting Monday, Sencoretech -- a Seoul-based engineering firm dedicated to manufacturing steel structure -- will go on a two-day institutional investor tranche to confirm the IPO price, estimated to be at least 27.16 billion won ($22.35 million). Samsung Securities is a lead underwriter for the IPO on the development bourse Kosdaq. This comes

South Korea’s midcap buyout fund VIG Partners said Friday it plans to acquire the nation’s leading funeral service firm Preedlife. While neither the acquisition price nor the amount of stake were disclosed, the transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2020. This comes amid the private equity firm’s move to carry out a bolt-on strategy, under which its existing portfolio firms Jounlife and Preedlife will be combined to become the biggest funeral goods and servi

Mirae Asset Financial Group said Tuesday it had topped the 1 trillion won ($820.48 million) mark in the group‘s combined operating profit, net profit and earnings before tax each, quoting its 2019 earnings statement. The South Korean group’s key affiliates, including brokerage Mirae Asset Daewoo, asset management firm Mirae Asset Global Investments, insurer Mirae Asset Life Insurance, nonbanking lender Mirae Asset Capital and Mirae Asset Consulting, recorded a combined 1.16 trillio

Hotel Shilla, a South Korean operator of luxury hotels and duty-free shops, has closed a $121 million transaction to buy a 44 percent stake in US duty-free shop operator Travel Retail Group Holdings, known for the in-flight retailing service 3Sixty Duty Free, a filing showed Wednesday. The deal, closed Tuesday, allowed the hotel and duty-free unit under Samsung to become the second-largest shareholder after 3Sixty Chairman Bernard Klepach. It marks Hotel Shilla’s first investment in a No

South Korea’s food service firm Lotte Food saw a moderate success in raising cash through investment-grade corporate bonds, as a state fund has helped fend off risks from the escalating coronavirus crisis. But analysts said Tuesday Korea is still a tough test bed to check whether the government’s stimulus package can normalize the funding market. On Monday, Lotte Food decided to raise 100 billion won ($81.77 million) after it carried out an institutional investor tranche for its AA

The state-run Export-Import Bank of Korea said Monday that it intends to create two funds worth a total of 400 billion won ($325.2 million) to help South Korean health care companies go global. The money will go to Korean companies devoted to immunotherapy, gene therapy, health care systems, diagnostic kits and medical devices. It will be used to support them in exporting more products, clinching more overseas investment and expanding to foreign markets. Of the total, Eximbank Korea has comm

The National Health Insurance Service unveiled on Monday plans to commit up to 1.4 trillion won ($1.14 billion) to its first alternative investment in history as an institutional investor. It plans to select two lead partners to manage the assets for four years, officials said. This comes as the South Korean state agency, with some 20 trillion won worth of assets under management, moves to shift away from a conservative portfolio and turn to alternative assets, ranging from real estate to

Restaurants available on delivery app Baedal Minjok will have a broader access to loans from a commercial bank, if they show proof that they were winning more online food delivery orders. This will be part of commitments in a memorandum of understanding by Korea’s mobile food delivery unicorn Woowa Brothers and commercial lender Hana Bank, Woowa Brothers said Friday. Under the MOU, the door-to-door food delivery company and the bank pledged to create a credit rating model that uses the

The volume of proposed mergers and acquisitions in South Korea has shrunk to about half in the first quarter of 2020, reflecting the impact of the novel coronavirus, data showed Thursday. The first quarter saw 5.23 trillion won ($4.22 billion) worth of deals announced, falling 50.6 percent on-year, according to a league table by news outlet thebell. This comes as the coronavirus pandemic is causing delays in reaching agreements between parties due to market uncertainties. Major deals annou

US investment house BlackRock Fund Advisors has offloaded its 1.01 percent stake in South Korea’s game software developer NCSoft to cash out 129.57 billion won ($105.1 million), a filing showed Thursday. As a result, BlackRock Fund Advisors and its 13 specially related parties hold 6.05 percent voting rights in the company as of March 25 as a nonengagement shareholder. NCsoft share price rose 6.15 percent. The investor said its transactions from September to March were “meant to se

Debt-saddled Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction was once considered South Korea’s leading power equipment maker for coal fire, nuclear and gas energy. But over the past few years, it has been losing investors’ interest, as it won fewer bids amid the global attempt to shift reliance on fossil fuel and nuclear energy, leaving its businesses dependent on debt to continue its faltering operations. In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Doosan Heavy is facing a liquidity cris

South Korea’s Mirae Asset Financial Group said Tuesday that Chairman Park Hyeon-joo has donated his dividends for 10 years in a row -- amounting to 25 billion won ($20.5 million). In 2019, as a shareholder of Mirae Asset Global Investments and Mirae Asset Capital, Park earned a combined 1.7 billion won. The donations went to Mirae Asset Park Hyeon-joo Foundation, dedicated to scholarships for exchange programs for Korean college students. According to the firm, over 5,800 students have

South Korea’s financial regulator Monday cleared uncertainties, allowing the Korea Development Bank to take control of a local insurer unit for the time being and buy the time to sell it off. A private equity firm jointly created by KDB and Consus Asset Management -- which controls a combined 92.73 percent of KDB Life Insurance -- reached the end of a 10-year grace period before being regulated as an insurance holding company in February. Under the Capital Markets Act, the private equity