Business - The Korea Times

Saehan Venture Capital faces liquidity crisis

gettyimagesbankExcessively leveraged investment strategies put VC firm under pressure By Anna J. ParkSaehan Venture Capital plans to sell the entirety of its owned shares of Dunamu and Viva Republica to pay off an 80 billion won ($60 million) debt that matures this Thursday. Throughout this year, the company already paid a total of 4.5 billion won worth in interest for the 80 billion won debt.According to the investment banking industry, Saehan Venture's founder and CEO Lee Jung-woo himself is holding negotiations with potential buyers to sell the shares. The venture capital firm currently holds 215,000 shares of Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, Korea's largest coin exchange, and 1.24 million shares of Viva Republica, which has fintech giant Toss, and their values are estimated to be about 34.2 billion won and 54.6 billion won, respectively, according to their latest prices traded on local private stock exchange platforms. Given that a considerable discount rate would be applied when all of the shares are sold at once, the venture capital firm is likely to suffer a significant loss, ev

Nov 15, 2022By Anna J. Park

Saehan Venture Capital faces liquidity crisis

Hana Bank runs media wall-based art exhibition to enhance offline services

Exterior view of Kasmin Gallery in New York / Captured from Kasmin Gallery websiteBy Yi Whan-wooHana Bank is showcasing collections of a New York art gallery on a media wall at its private banking center in Seoul, as a part of efforts to offer a range of services for offline customers in the digital banking era, the company said Tuesday. The media wall exhibition has been made possible in cooperation with Easel, a Seoul-based company that specializes in providing art-related content.The exhibition is exclusively for clients of the private banking center in Seoul's affluent area of Apgujeong. The banking center mainly deals with wealth inheritance. Clients can enjoy works that were on display at the Kasmin Gallery in New York during its 2021 exhibition called, “Between the Earth and Sky.”Some 22 monolithic sculptures that bring together examples of the form spanning from 900 A.D. to 2019 were featured back then.Titled “Trip to Kasmin Gallery, New York,” the media wall exhibition is a part of a broader virtual art tour being planned by Hana Bank.“We've com

Nov 15, 2022By Yi Whan-woo

Hana Bank runs media wall-based art exhibition to enhance offline services

Meritz set to shake up old rivalry in securities industry

The headquarters of Meritz Financial Group in Seoul / YonhapBy Lee Min-hyungMeritz Securities is set to emerge as the nation's most profitable brokerage firm this year, breaking through the long-standing leadership rivalry between Mirae Asset Securities and Korea Investment & Securities.Meritz is forecast to achieve record earnings of more than 1 trillion won ($754.9 million) in operating profit in 2022, according to market tracker FnGuide. The company has generated an operating profit of 823.5 billion won during the first three quarters combined. Market consensus is that the firm will be able to register 197 billion won during the fourth quarter, which will enable it to generate the symbolically important 1 trillion won in earnings for the first time in its history.The firm's stunning rise to a possible leadership position comes as a surprise to industry players, as the company was widely considered a mid-tier brokerage house here for the past few years. Mirae Asset Securities and Korea Investment & Securities have for the past five years maintained a neck-and-neck rivalry r

Nov 15, 2022By Lee Min-hyung

Meritz set to shake up old rivalry in securities industry

Major global PEs compete again to acquire Medit

The headquarters of Medit in Seoul / Courtesy of MeditBy Anna J. ParkThe second round of competition for the acquisition of dental 3D scanner business Medit has begun, as the consortium of GS and Carlyle lost its preferred bidder position. According to the investment banking (IB) industry, Unison Capital, the largest shareholder of the world's third-largest dental 3D scanner company, and Citigroup Global Markets Korea Securities ― the sales manager of the Medit deal ― have recently entered into separate negotiations with top global private equity companies, including KKR and Blackstone, over the sales deal.During the main bid conducted in mid-October, the GS-Carlyle consortium secured the preferred bidder position, as it suggested the highest bidding price of 3 trillion won ($2.26 billion), which is about 300 billion higher than the second-highest bidding price suggested by KKR. While both the seller and the preferred bidder attempted to sign their stock purchase agreement as early as the end of last month, they failed at reaching a final agreement earlier this month, resulting in th

Nov 14, 2022By Anna J. Park

Major global PEs compete again to acquire Medit

ICT exports down in Oct. amid global slowdown

This photo shows shipping containers at a pier in Korea's largest port city of Busan. NewsisKorea's exports of information and communication technology (ICT) products declined 10.3 percent in October from a year earlier in the face of weak demand for tech goods amid a global economic slowdown, data showed Monday.Outbound shipments of ICT products came to US$17.9 billion last month, down from $20 billion a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Science and ICT.The country's ICT imports in October grew 13.6 percent on-year to $13.8 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of $4.1 billion in the sector.The ministry said ICT exports fell across nearly all product categories in October due to a slump in demand from the global economic slowdown.Exports of semiconductors, which accounted for more than half of all ICT shipments, retreated 16.2 percent to $9.4 billion, while those of other key products, such as displays and computers, fell 9.6 percent and 30.9 percent to $2 billion and $1 billion, respectively.Shipments of smartphones, however, rose 13 percent to $1.6 bi

Nov 14, 2022

ICT exports down in Oct. amid global slowdown

Shinhan speeds up drive to extend leadership

Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byoung speaks during a startup accelerating event in Seoul, Nov. 9. YonhapBy Lee Min-hyungShinhan Financial Group is on track to initiate internal procedures to extend the leadership of Chairman Cho Yong-byoung, whose term ends in March 2023. Last week, the group set up a chairperson recommendation committee, and its seven board members have started discussion of the next candidates for the group's top management. Shinhan is expected to confirm the shortlist for the group's next chairperson sometime around early December.After the final candidate is confirmed to lead the banking group during a regular shareholders' meeting in March, the next chairperson will then take office as its next leader with a three-year tenure.The incumbent leader is widely forecast to extend his term for another three years, as he cleared away legal risks he faced after the Supreme Court acquitted him on corruption charges over Shinhan Bank's employee hiring practices in June.Shinhan's earnings growth also increases the likelihood for Cho to extend his leadership. Ac

Nov 13, 2022By Lee Min-hyung

Shinhan speeds up drive to extend leadership

Hana resumes voluntary service campaign after 3 years

Hana Financial Group Chairman Ham Young-joo, fourth from left, makes kimchi with other participants of an annual voluntary service campaign at the banking group's headquarters in central Seoul, Friday. The campaign traditionally starts on Nov. 11 and has resumed this year after it was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Courtesy of Hana Financial Group By Yi Whan-wooHana Financial Group has resumed an annual voluntary service campaign that has gotten bigger in terms of its scale and range of programs to reflect the firm's commitment to environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG)-oriented management better. The campaign traditionally starts on Nov. 11, in line with Hana Financial Group's aspiration to become the nation's No. 1 banking group from its current third place.The campaign had been suspended for past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.This year, what the group calls, “all ones day,” ― the 11th day of the 11th month ― campaign kicked off, Fri

Nov 11, 2022By Yi Whan-woo

Hana resumes voluntary service campaign after 3 years

Analysts paint rosy picture for Coupang shares

Coupang founder and CEO Kim Bom-suk stands in front of the New York Stock Exchange on March 11 last year, when the firm made its debut at the stock exchange. AP-Yonhap By Anna J. Park Korea's e-commerce giant, Coupang, recorded its first-ever quarterly operating profit in the third quarter of this year, as the firm finally began see benefits from its past investments focusing on efficiently improving the firm's automated fulfillment infrastructure, logistics and machine-learning supply-chain optimization. According to the earnings report submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (U.S. SEC), the company not only posted its first quarterly operating profit of 103.7 billion won ($77.4 million) in the third quarter of this year, but it also logged its record-high quarterly revenue of 6.8 trillion won, which is a 27-percent year-on-year increase. “Revenues increased to $5.1 billion, growing 27 percent year-on-year on an FX-neutral basis and over 10 perce

Nov 11, 2022By Anna J. Park

Woori Financial Group launches data intelligence unit

The headquarters of Woori Financial Group in central Seoul / YonhapBy Anna J. ParkWoori Financial Group has launched a new department dedicated to strengthening capabilities in data and artificial intelligence, hoping the new department will contribute to the group's future growth and taking the lead in the data technology sector. According to the financial giant on Thursday, a new department named Data Intelligence (DI) has been set up, aiming to pursue strategic development in areas of data and artificial intelligence (AI). The new department will focus on integrating, analyzing and utilizing AI and big data information, as it attempts to draw up the group's strategic responses as well as business strategies in the state-of-the-art tech areas. Employees familiar with businesses using data governance, big data integration business or AI-based marketing will be working in the department. Woori Bank, the financial group's key affiliate, has also launched its own Data Intelligence Agile Core Team (DI ACT). The bank's DI ACT members also assume roles at the financial group's DI departme

Nov 10, 2022By Anna J. Park

Woori Financial Group launches data intelligence unit

YJC CEO inducted into IBK Hall of Fame

Bae Ji-soo, right, CEO of electronics component manufacturer YJC, poses with Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) Chairman and CEO Yoon Jong-won during a ceremony to honor Bae, who was inducted into the IBK Hall of Fame at the bank's headquarters in central Seoul, Wednesday. Courtesy of IBKBy Yi Whan-wooThe Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) inducted Bae Ji-soo, CEO of electronic component manufacturer YJC, into this year's IBK Hall of Fame for developing technology to produce components, which previously Korea had to rely on Japan for, in the form of imports, the bank announced on Thursday. Bae will join 38 other entrepreneurs who are part of the Hall of Fame list.Mid-size enterprise YJC makes heat-resistant ceramic materials used for electronic devices. Korea's supply of such materials used to rely on Japan, but it is now self-reliant because YJC developed the relevant know-how and technology after it was founded by Bae in 1987.The company even exports materials back to Japan now.“CEO Bae was behind the home-grown manufacturing of the materials, and therefore, deserves to be recognized

Nov 10, 2022By Yi Whan-woo

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