M.VICS 5.0
Scope
Date
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Banking & Finance
KB Financial to buy back $359 bn in shares after record net profit in 2024
KB Financial Group Inc., South Korea’s largest financial holding group, will spend nearly 1.8 trillion won ($1.2 billion) to boost shareholder...
Feb 06, 2025 (Gmt+09:00)
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Economy
Korea to launch $23 bn high tech fund, bracing for Trump 2.0
South Korea will launch a high tech fund worth more than 34 trillion won ($23 billion) to provide cheap financing, including equity investments, for...
Feb 05, 2025 (Gmt+09:00)
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Leadership & Management
Samsung set to rebuild with leader Lee cleared of all charges
Samsung Electronics Co. Chairman Lee Jae-yong was found not guilty of accounting fraud, stock manipulation and other criminal charges by a Seoul app...
Feb 03, 2025 (Gmt+09:00)
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League table
Korean law firms' 2024 revenue soars on M&As, management disputes
South Korea’s major law firms saw rapid growth in revenue last year as the economic slowdown sparked business overhauls at top conglomerates, ...
Jan 31, 2025 (Gmt+09:00)
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IPOs
Korean B2B fintech firm Dozn plans Kosdaq IPO for $202.5 mn market cap
South Korea’s business-to-business fintech service provider Dozn is planning an initial public offering on the Kosdaq in February for an estim...
Jan 31, 2025 (Gmt+09:00)
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Mergers & Acquisitions
PCB maker Isupetasys cancels M&A with carbon nanotube producer
South Korean printed circuit board (PCB) maker Isupetasys Co. has withdrawn a 300-billion-won ($210 million) deal to buy Jeio Co., one of the countr...
Jan 29, 2025 (Gmt+09:00)
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Upcoming IPOs
Seoul Guarantee Insurance sharply cuts IPO valuation
Seoul Guarantee Insurance Co. (SGI) has slashed its target valuation by about 40% in a renewed attempt to go public on the South Korean stock exchan...
Jan 26, 2025 (Gmt+09:00)
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Economy
S.Korea’s economy grows 2.0% in 2024; Q4 GDP below forecast
South Korea’s economy expanded 2.0% last year, falling short of the central bank’s forecast on weaker-than-expected growth in the fourth...
Jan 23, 2025 (Gmt+09:00)
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Korean chipmakers
SK Hynix sharply narrows gap with Samsung’s market cap
SK Hynix Inc. has significantly raised its value by bolstering its presence in the artificial intelligence memory market, threatening Samsung Electr...
Jan 22, 2025 (Gmt+09:00)
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Central bank
BOK lowers growth forecasts to bolster rate cut expectations
South Korea’s central bank slashed its economic growth forecasts on Monday, adding to views that the monetary authority will cut interest rate...
Jan 20, 2025 (Gmt+09:00)
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Mergers & Acquisitions
SK, Lotte's restructuring to drive Korea's M&A market in 2025
SK and Lotte groups remain the focus for South Korean dealmakers as the two conglomerates accelerate restructuring by divesting non-core assets, a s...
Jan 20, 2025 (Gmt+09:00)
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IPOs
Celltrion seeks large-scale M&A in Q4, eyes 2027 Nasdaq debut
SAN FRANCISCO – South Korea’s leading biosimilar drug developer Celltrion Inc. seeks to acquire a domestic health food maker as early as...
Jan 16, 2025 (Gmt+09:00)
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Electronics
LG mulls US plant expansion to deal with Trump 2.0 tariffs
CLARKSVILLE, TN -- South Korea’s appliance and electronics giants are actively looking into options to ramp up the production capacity of thei...
Jan 14, 2025 (Gmt+09:00)
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Earnings
Samsung’s Q4 profit misses expectations; Stock rises
Samsung Electronics Co. flagged weaker-than-expected earnings for the last quarter of last year due to a fall in memory chip prices and soft demand ...
Jan 08, 2025 (Gmt+09:00)
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Foreign exchange
South Korea’s forex reserves drop to 5-year low in 2024
South Korea’s foreign exchange reserves shrank to a five-year low at the end of last year after the country’s foreign exchange authoriti...
Jan 07, 2025 (Gmt+09:00)
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Bio & Pharma
Korean drugmakers control more than half of European biosimilar market
South Korea’s two leading drugmakers, Celltrion Inc. and Samsung Bioepis Co., have achieved a significant milestone in the European biosimilar...
Jan 02, 2025 (Gmt+09:00)
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Korean startups
Korean startup M&As halve in 2024 with smaller deals
Mergers and acquisitions of South Korean startups halved in value in 2024 as conglomerates and Big Tech firms such as Naver Corp. and Kakao Corp. sn...
Dec 27, 2024 (Gmt+09:00)
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Petrochemicals
Korea to ease rules for petrochem industry M&As, plant closures
South Korea will ease regulations and offer incentives to facilitate the restructuring of domestic petrochemical makers battling a global suppl...
Dec 24, 2024 (Gmt+09:00)
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Mergers & Acquisitions
M&A deals in South Korea hit 7-year low in 2024
South Korea’s mergers and acquisitions market shrank further in 2024, with leading business groups seeking to unload non-core assets to bolste...
Dec 23, 2024 (Gmt+09:00)
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Bio & Pharma
Celltrion BioSolutions launched to venture into CDMO
Celltrion Inc. on Tuesday launched its contract development and manufacturing organization unit Celltrion BioSolutions Co. in its foray into the CDM...
Dec 17, 2024 (Gmt+09:00)
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Tech, Media & Telecom
RaonSecure to supply biometrics to SBI Sumishin Net Bank
South Korean cybersecurity firm RaonSecure Co. said on Monday it signed a $2.5 million contract with SBI Sumishin Net Bank, the largest internet ban...
Dec 17, 2024 (Gmt+09:00)
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Steel
POSCO Future M develops technology to make electrode rods
POSCO Future M Co., a battery material and steel manufacturing equipment supplier, said on Thursday it has developed electrode rod manufacturing tec...
Dec 12, 2024 (Gmt+09:00)
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E-commerce
China’s Alibaba acquires 5% of Ably in 1st equity investment in Korean firm
Chinese online shopping giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has invested 100 billion won ($71.4 million) in South Korea’s top women’s cloth...
Dec 02, 2024 (Gmt+09:00)
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Airlines
Korean Air-Asiana merger to spur M&A among budget carriers
Korean Air Lines Co.'s anticipated acquisition of Asiana Airlines Inc. is expected to spur domestic budget carriers to seek mergers, with the two do...
Nov 29, 2024 (Gmt+09:00)
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Bio & Pharma
Celltrion to break ground on CDMO plant in 2025: Chairman Seo
South Korea’s leading biosimilar developer Celltrion Inc. will break ground on its first contract development and manufacturing organization (...
Nov 28, 2024 (Gmt+09:00)
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Asset management
Mirae Asset aspires to No. 5 in Indian securities market with Sharekhan
South Korea’s leading asset manager Mirae Asset Financial Group will strive to grab the fifth-largest share of the Indian securities market th...
Nov 27, 2024 (Gmt+09:00)
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Travel & Leisure
S.Korean overseas card spending posts record $5.71 bn in Q3
With the increase in international travel during the summer, overseas card spending by South Korean residents reached a record high in the third qua...
Nov 26, 2024 (Gmt+09:00)
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Corporate restructuring
S.Korea to restructure ailing petrochemical industry
South Korea plans to restructure the struggling domestic petrochemical industry amid intensifying competition with Chinese rivals and oversupply by ...
Nov 21, 2024 (Gmt+09:00)
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Korean startups
Bering Lab eyes 7-fold jump in revenue in 5 years
Bering Lab Inc., a South Korea-based artificial intelligence technology-powered translation startup with specialties in legal, financial and intelle...
Nov 21, 2024 (Gmt+09:00)
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Private equity
MBK Partners’ 6th buyout fund raises $5 bn at 2nd close
MBK Partners, a North Asia-focused private equity firm, has completed the second closing of its sixth buyout fund at $5 billion, on course to reach ...
Nov 19, 2024 (Gmt+09:00)
Latest News
- 1 Seoul appeal: Korean art captivates Indonesia’s affluent connoisseurs
- 2 CJ CheilJedang scraps $3.5 bn green bio sale, shifts gears to expansion
- 3 Trump Jr. meets Korean business chiefs in back-to-back sessions
- 4 Samsung in talks to supply customized HBM4 to Nvidia, Broadcom, Google
- 5 Kookmin Bank raises $700 mn in forex bonds amid strong demand