South Korea's institutional investor Military Mutual Aid Association said Monday its Chief Executive Kim Do-ho held a closed-door meeting with a batch of top officials at US-based private equity house Rhone Group, including former US national security adviser John Bolton, in its headquarters in Seoul. Bolton, a former adviser to US President Donald Trump, attended the meeting as the senior adviser to the US private equity firm. He served the same position before joining the White House and

South Korea’s financial authorities on Sunday unveiled a new set of guidelines on public disclosure of information for listed biopharma firms, in a move to ward off market uncertainty. Clinical trial-stage pharmaceutical companies listed on the tech-heavy Kosdaq are required to disclose any significant progress in their business -- including each stage of clinical trials, from success to suspension or termination, approval or cancellation for drug production, distribution and sales, techn

The fast-emerging silver economy and changes in consumer behavior have given birth to theme-driven investment strategies. And South Korea is not an exception. Those aged 65 or older take up nearly 15 percent in the country, while technologies in one of the most penetrated countries in the world are reshaping the way consumers purchase goods, order food or make payments. This potentially puts Korean assets on the radar of Adams Street Partners, an international investment house with over $40 bil

South Korea’s public pension fund, the National Pension Service, is now gearing up for new committees to ramp up the shareholder engagement push for its portfolio firms here at an unprecedented level. But time appears to be running short ahead of the March proxy season in Korea. The NPS’ Fund Management Committee has to start from scratch to forge a fully fledged decision-making system to shortlist companies under what is equivalent to a “focus list” by the California P

Seoul-based private equity house Hahn & Co. agreed to buy SK Chemicals’ biofuel operation for 382.5 billion won ($322.2 million) in cash on Wednesday. The proposed acquisition of South Korea’s No. 1 biodiesel producer marks the first deal to be announced since Hahn & Co. closed a new Korea-focused fund worth $3.2 billion in October last year, a Hahn & Co. official said. As of end-2018, SK Chemicals took up one-third of market share here by biodiesel production. This c

South Korea’s state-led fund of funds manager Korea Growth Investment (K-Growth) said Wednesday it plans to earmark a combined 5.4 trillion won ($4.5 billion) risk capital to spur venture investments across the nation in 2020. The company said it aims to raise at least 1 trillion won for its portfolio, adding to the 1.6 trillion won from its flagship fund of funds. The majority of the funds worth 3.3 trillion won will be used to nurture startups for later-stage funding rounds, K-Growth

Ahead of Danaher’s acquisition of General Electric’s biopharmaceutical unit for $21.4 billion, South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission on Tuesday ordered either of the two firms to divest certain assets in its conditional approval. The latest decision, according to the antitrust watchdog, is meant to thwart monopoly in Korea’s bioprocessing market. The order forces either Danaher or GE’s biopharma unit to sell off the entire eight bioprocessing product assets in Kore

H2O Hospitality, a Korean startup dedicated to vacation rental management in Japan, said Tuesday it has raised $7 million funding from five investors to meet its fast-growing working capital needs on the back of strong growth. Joining the latest round were Samsung Venture Investment, Stonebridge Ventures, IMM Investment, Shinhan Capital and Wonik Investment Partners. The round brought H2O’s total funding to $18 million. The valuation of the firm has jumped threefold since the previous

Seven South Korean firms are looking to raise as much as a combined 247 billion won ($206.6 million) through initial public offerings in February, but market watchers are wary as the local stock market grapples with the Wuhan coronavirus scare. While the number of infections in Korea grew to 15 as of Sunday, from just three a week prior, the Korea Exchange’s main bourse, Kospi, dipped 5.7 percent and its development board, Kosdaq, sank 6.3 percent. The companies may have weaker incentive

Shinhan Financial Group’s plans to merge Orange Life Insurance with its wholly owned life insurance unit seemed to have been working out smoothly. However, trouble persists as minority shareholders continue to demand an increase in their dividend payouts. Small shareholders of Orange began making the demand after teaming up with civic activist group the Korea Stockholders Alliance in November, but Shinhan refuses, saying it would constitute a breach of trust with its other shareholders.

Big Hit Entertainment, the agency behind K-pop sensation BTS, is seeking an underwriter in the initial step to go public, according to news reports Friday. Big Hit has sent a request for proposal to multiple securities brokerage firms to underwrite its initial public offering, an investment banking source was quoted as saying by local news outlet the Bell. The news report did not clarify which stock market in Korea that Big Hit would choose to be listed. An underwriter is responsible for offer

Annie Jeong has always been concerned about her 3-year-old son’s exposure to digital devices. She became more worried recently after learning about the rise of screen-free parenting. But such a scheme is a tall order, she said. With digital-driven education permeating classrooms across South Korea, the use of digital devices and software has become a necessity for the future generation. “I’m worried that my kid might be in trouble in the future if he grows up tech-free,&rd

The industrial outlook for 2020 is negative for eight of South Korea’s 11 major industries, in part due to the slowing global economy, according to credit rating agency Korea Investors Service on Thursday. Sectors that fell into the “negative industrial outlook” category were construction, steel, distribution, automotive, transportation, petrochemicals, life insurance and non-life insurance. The outlook for refiners, shipbuilders and securities rated neutral, according to t

Korea’s state-backed fund seeking a commitment of 1.5 trillion won ($1.27 billion) is looking to raise 900 billion won in private money, its lead fund manager Samsung Asset Management said Tuesday. The fund has a maturity of 30 years and is set to close all transactions by October 2024. The fund is designed to target overseas infrastructure assets, ranging from new and renewable energy plants, oil and gas plants, airports and roads to railways and smart city infrastructure. Managing th

AlpenRoute Asset Management said Tuesday it may opt to suspend investor withdrawal of assets worth 181.7 billion won ($154.4 million) from its 26 open-ended funds by February to ward off illiquidity, as the distrust of hedge fund managers across South Korea has triggered abrupt money withdrawal attempts. Of its 226.4 billion won assets in open-ended funds -- designed to allow investors to withdraw at will -- that mainly target equities in privately held companies, AlpenRoute has decided to defe

Although concerns over the possible impact of the deadly coronavirus on the financial market are rising here, analysts say that the “noise” caused by the contagious virus originating from China will be short-lived and eventually overshadowed by company fundamentals that remain strong, coupled with the easing trade conflict between China and the United States. “The spread of coronavirus will not likely cause an unprecedented pandemonium but merely an uncanny noise to investors,

A revision of local financial laws is opening the doors for a higher level of shareholder engagement, empowering the role of pension funds in South Korea, including the world’s third-largest National Pension Service. In forthcoming shareholder meetings slated for March, the NPS is likely to hold sway over those listed on what is equivalent to a “focus list” by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, out of more than 300 portfolio companies trading on the domes

Lingering uncertainties due to cyclical risk across emerging markets in Asia are leaving long-term prospects for South Korea’s equity market unclear, despite its recent buoyance in the technology sector, an analyst at global asset management firm AllianceBernstein said Tuesday. “The technology-led revival in earnings will benefit Kospi earnings-per-share growth in 2020, but there is cyclicality to those earnings, so the outlook for 2021 remains unclear,” David Wong, senior inve

South Korean biopharmaceutical firm Celltrion’s key affiliates said Friday they have yet to set a clear blueprint in regards to Chairman Seo Jung-jin’s hint at the blockbuster merger of Celltrion, Celltrion Healthcare and Celltrion Pharm by as early as 2021. “The company is considering the merger plan on the premise of shareholder agreement, but we have yet to make any confirmation as to how and when the merger would be undertaken,” the three firms said in respective disc

Woori Financial Group, South Korea’s fourth-largest banking group by assets, walked away from a bid to buy a 100 percent stake in Prudential Life Insurance of Korea, according to the group on Thursday.Woori Financial, Korea’s only banking group without an insurance unit, did not join the preliminary bidding round for the sale of a 2 trillion-won ($1.73 billion) stake in Prudential Financial’s Korean unit, a spokesperson of the group said.Other talked-about contenders, including