my timesThe Korea Times
ksw

Kang Seung-woo

Korea Times Business Reporter

Kang Seung-woo is the Business Desk editor at The Korea Times. Prior to this position, he covered politics, national affairs, finance and sports.

Go to Email

Read more

Companies

Hanwha to sponsor Bolton Wanderers

By Kang Seung-woo Hanwha Group has agreed to an exclusive partnership deal with Bolton Wanderers of the English Premier League (EPL) in an effort to expand its presence and brand awareness in Europe, the company said Monday. Bolton Wanderers, founded in 1877, is an English football club for which Korean Lee Chung-yong has played since 2009. Under the one-year contract, Hanwha is able to run advertising campaigns, including a showcase of its HanwhaSolar, on large screens and perimeter walls at the Reebok Stadium, the club’s home ground. Hanwha, which has focused its investments on the green energy sector for years, expects the sponsorship to help the company promote HanwhaSolar, its solar energy brand, in the European market. “Hanwha Group is proud to support Bolton Wanderers, one of the most respected Premier League football clubs. The sponsorship deal will create opportunities for us to advertise HanwhaSolar to the European markets, and we will make efforts to raise HanwhaSolar to a top-tier brand there in the future,” said Lee Sung-soo, chief strategy officer (

Aug 22, 2011By Kang Seung-woo
Companies

Insurance firms hit by flood-damaged cars

By Kang Seung-woo Torrential rain across much of Korea in late July has hit non-life insurers hard with the number of damaged cars expected to reach a record high, the nation’s financial watchdog said Monday. In addition, the record downpours are likely to prevent the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) from pushing for cuts on insurance premiums in the second half of this year. According to the FSS, there were 11,362 reports of car damage in July, the highest monthly figure, breaking the previous record of 11,198 claims after a typhoon in September last year. The heavy rains also catapulted the amount of compensation owed to policyholders to a new mark. The FSS estimated that 13 non-life insurance companies will have to pay policyholders 80.13 billion won, more than doubling the September payout of 35.67 billion, which translates to an average 7.05 million won of damage per car. This has lifted the average loss ratio of the 13 firms to 77.6 percent in July, up from 73.3 percent the previous month. The loss ratio, or the amount of compensation paid to policy holders

Aug 22, 2011By Kang Seung-woo
Companies

It’s time for top regulator to head for door

Kim Seok-dong, once depicted as czar of financial authority, finds himself relegated to blowhard By Kang Seung-woo Behind a bureaucratic yet storied career, Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chairman Kim Seok-dong took up his position in January this year with high hopes of settling issues plaguing the financial industry. Only eight months was enough to prove that the former James Dean of the finance ministry is no longer what he used to be. One blunder after another makes him appear more like a blowhard with a lot of hot air but little action. Last Wednesday, the long-awaited privatization of Woori Financial Group fell through in the absence of valid bidders, once again putting Kim’s leadership and credibility as the nation’s top financial regulator in question. According to the Korea Deposit Insurance Corp. (KDIC), only one investor offered a preliminary bid for a controlling stake in the nation’s largest financial holding firm by assets. The government has required that there be more than two valid bidders in the acquisition process. “Despite negative reaction

Aug 19, 2011By Kang Seung-woo
Companies

Credit card use hits record high

By Kang Seung-woo The average number of credit cards per person among the economically active hit a record high, when it nearly reached five cards per capita, a finance association said Thursday. The figure is higher than that of the credit card crisis in 2003 posing a potential risk to the nation’s economy. According to the Credit Finance Association (CFA), a total of 119.5 million credit cards were issued as of the first quarter of this year to an economically active population of 24.48 million, meaning each individual carries 4.8 credit cards. The economically active population comprises all persons over age 15 who supply labor in the production of economic goods and services. Last year the average eclipsed the previous high of 4.6 cards per person set in 2002, by 0.1. The number of credit cards per capita spiked from 0.6 to 4.6 between 1991 and 2002. However, after the credit card fiasco, in which more than 3 million people defaulted on payments, the number fell below the 4 mark. It has rebounded due to cut-throat competition among credit card issuers. The to

Aug 18, 2011By Kang Seung-woo
Companies

Woori sale likely to fall apart

By Kang Seung-woo The long-awaited privatization of state-run Woori Financial is in jeopardy again due to a lack of valid bidders. The Korea Deposit Insurance Corp. (KDIC) announced Wednesday that only one investor offered a preliminary bid for a controlling stake in the nation’s largest financial holding firm by assets. Three local private equity funds _ MBK Partners, TStone Corp. and Vogo Investment _ submitted letters of intent in June, but only a consortium of MBK and Korean Federation of Community Credit Cooperatives took part in the preliminary bid that closed at 5 p.m. on the day. Vogo Investment said that it had decided not to join in the bidding due to a change in its financial investors and low chances of an acquisition, while controversy over the Woori Finance sale and the recent sharp fall in Woori Finance's share prices prevented TStone Corp. from offering a bid. As a result, the sale process failed to meet the government’s requirement that there should be more than two valid bidders to acquire Woori. “Although the Public Fund Oversight Committee (PFOC)

Aug 17, 2011By Kang Seung-woo
Companies

Chaebol’s economic concentration at record high

By Kang Seung-woo The economic concentration of the top 10 privately owned companies has increased in the manufacturing sector and stock market over the last five years, as its level hit a record high, a report said Wednesday. Observers say that the concentration will have a negative impact on the nation’s economy. “The economic concentration of conglomerates is sure to weaken the economic structure, as well as prevent continuous economic growth,” the Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice (CCEJ), a Seoul-based civic group, said in its public statement. “If major companies take up a large portion of market profits, taking advantage of their superior market position and huge capital, smaller firms will have trouble surviving, which will eventually derail economic growth and deepen the polarization of the economy.” According to Chaebul.com, an Internet-based researcher, Statistics Korea and Korea Exchange (KRX), the combined sales of 539 affiliates of the 10 major companies excluding those from banks, insurers and brokerages reached 756 trillion won ($705.35 billion) l

Aug 17, 2011By Kang Seung-woo
Companies

KoFC president offers to resign over Hynix

By Kang Seung-woo Ryu Jae-han, president of the Korea Finance Corp. (KoFC), offered to resign Tuesday over controversy surrounding the much-anticipated sale of Hynix Semiconductor. “I will take responsibility for the fuss surrounding the sale as undecided details about the sale conditions for Hynix Semiconductor were revealed to the media,” Ryu, who took office in October 2009, said in a news release. His term as KoFC CEO lasts until October next year. Ryu’s potential exit comes amid speculation that Hynix’s creditors are attempting to provide incentives, including extra credit, to a would-be buyer that bids for large portions of the chipmaker’s available stakes without the issuance of new shares. This suggested a reverse in creditors’ original stance, which was to consider issuing new shares to help the chipmaker improve its financial strength and ease the investment burdens for potential suitors. Early last month, top mobile carrier SK Telecom and shipbuilding conglomerate STX Group submitted preliminary bids for a 15-percent stake in the world's second-largest memo

Aug 16, 2011By Kang Seung-woo
Companies

FSC presses big banks over financial market stability

By Kang Seung-woo The chief of the nation’s financial regulator stressed Tuesday that major banking groups need to behave in a ‘responsible’ manner to stabilize reeling markets amid jitters that fallout from the global financial turmoil is threatening to agitate the Korean economy. “Financial holding firms are required to continue supporting the nation’s real economy to calm the financial markets against any turmoil,” Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chairman Kim Seok-dong said to the heads of the country’s top five banking groups. The five chiefs are Euh Yoon-dae from KB Financial, Lee Pal-sung from Woori Financial, Kang Man-soo from Korea Development Bank (KDB) Financial, Kim Seung-yu from Hana Financial and Han Dong-woo from Shinhan Financial. “When the financial markets are shaken up by uncertainties, banking groups need to exercise leadership to help the markets withstand trouble by providing funding to companies reeling from unfavorable factors.” The chairman said that there will be government-level support to bolster the groups’ actions. “The government will

Aug 16, 2011By Kang Seung-woo
Companies

Kwon slams foreign brokerages over gloomy reports

By Kang Seung-woo The chief of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) Friday called foreign brokerages’ recent negative reports on the Korean economy “an arbitrary decision.” He also said that the nation’s financial watchdog is considering lifting a suspension of short selling at the Seoul bureau earlier than scheduled if the market shows signs of stabilization. “A few foreign brokerages have issued reports saying that if the current debt crisis in Europe worsens, Korea will be most exposed to the crisis in terms of its ability to repay external debts among Asian countries. But (I think) those reports did not come from objective criteria,” FSS Governor Kwon Hyouk-se said at a breakfast meeting with heads of foreign brokerage houses, asset managers and banks, including Citibank Korea, JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs. Recently, Nomura Securities and Morgan Stanley issued reports on the Korean economy and each estimated that Asia’s fourth-largest economy will be hit hardest by the eurozone’s sovereign debt crisis, unless the financial turmoil abates. He told the foreig

Aug 12, 2011By Kang Seung-woo
Companies

Wholesale funding exposes banks to vulnerability

By Kang Seung-woo The fallout from the global financial turmoil from advanced economies has been roiling the Korean financial markets, with its benchmark stock index plunging sharply of late. Amid this unabated swoon, major local banks have fallen prey to the volatility as their shares nosedived. Observers say that Korean lenders’ increasing heavy reliance on wholesale funding, mainly from Europe and the United States, is leaving them vulnerable to financial uncertainties. Wholesale funding, a source of financing for banks to expand or to satisfy funding needs from big financial institutions, refers to foreign deposits, federal funds and brokered deposits. The ongoing European debt crisis is likely to weigh more on the local banks, as Morgan Stanley’s recent research on Asia’s credit strategy concluded that Korea will be hit hardest if the sovereign-debt crisis in Europe worsens. Europe’s banking system is the most heavily reliant on wholesale funding in the world. “The biggest risk to Asian credit markets of a worsening European debt crisis is deterioration in glob

Aug 12, 2011By Kang Seung-woo
previous page
244245246247248
next page

Top 5 stories

Korea Times
About Us
Introduction
History
Contact Us
Products & Services
Subscribe
E-paper
RSS Service
Content Sales
Site Map
Policy
Code of Ethics
Ombudsman
Privacy Policy
Youth Protection Policy
Terms of Service
Copyright Policy
Family Site
Hankookilbo
Dongwha Group
FacebookXYoutubeInstagram
CEO & Publisher: Oh Young-jinDigital News Email: webmaster@koreatimes.co.krTel: 02-724-2114Online newspaper registration No: 서울,아52844Date of registration: 2020.02.05Masthead: The Korea TimesCopyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.