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  • Tech & Science

    SK hynix to raise up to $29.4 bil. via Nasdaq ADR offering

    SK hynix is set to raise up to 45.45 trillion won ($29.4 billion) through an American depositary receipt (ADR) offering backed by newly issued shares, expanding its global investor base and funding major semiconductor projects. The chip giant said Wednesday that its board approved the ADR issuance, with the securities set to debut on Nasdaq on July 10. Depositary receipts are bank-issued securities that represent shares in a foreign company, allowing investors to trade them on local exchanges. Under the offering structure, newly issued common shares will be deposited with a local custodian in Korea, and a U.S. depositary bank will issue ADRs representing those underlying shares for trading on Nasdaq. The indicative price is set at 255,500 won per ADR, based on the company's Tuesday closing price of 2.555 million won for the underlying common shares. Each ADR will represent 0.1 of a common share, with up to 17.79 million new shares to be issued under the offering. Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan are acting as joint lead underwriters for the offering. The Korea Securiti

    2 MIN READBy Lee Gyu-lee
    SK hynix to raise up to $29.4 bil. via Nasdaq ADR offering
  • Companies

    Positive outlook for Toyota, BYD's expansion in PHEV market

    2 MIN READBy Lee Min-hyung
    Positive outlook for Toyota, BYD's expansion in PHEV market
  • Companies

    JoongAng Group's fate split between court, creditors

    3 MIN READBy Jun Ji-hye
    JoongAng Group's fate split between court, creditors
  • Companies

    Hyundai Motor union votes in favor of strike plan

    1 MIN READBy Yonhap
    Hyundai Motor union votes in favor of strike plan
  • Companies

    Hanwha Aerospace partners with UAE defense firm for expansion into Middle East

    1 MIN READBy Yonhap
    Hanwha Aerospace partners with UAE defense firm for expansion into Middle East
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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.

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Companies

Celltrion completes acquisition of US biopharmaceutical plant

Celltrion Inc., a major Korean biopharmaceutical company, has completed the acquisition of a biopharmaceutical manufacturing plant in the United States, the company said Friday, paving the way for local contract manufacturing deals under tariff-free conditions. Celltrion USA Inc., the company's U.S. unit, finalized the deal to acquire the 460 billion-won ($317 million) facility in New Jersey from U.S. drugmaker Eli Lilly and Company (LLY), the company said in a press release. Following the acquisition, Celltrion has signed a contract manufacturing organization (CMO) agreement worth 678.7 billion won to produce biopharmaceutical products for Eli Lilly for three years through 2029, it added. "The U.S. acquisition was aimed at proactively responding to rapidly changing biopharmaceutical markets. The company plans to expand the facility to secure additional global CMO contracts," a company official said. On Wednesday, Celltrion projected its annual operating profit would exceed 1 trillion won for the first time this year, driven by strong sales of high-margin biosimilar products. In his New Y

Jan 2, 2026By Yonhap
Celltrion completes acquisition of US biopharmaceutical plant
Companies

Questions raised over TCL’s RGB mini LED TV marketing

Controversy has emerged over alleged false advertising involving a budget red, green and blue (RGB) mini LED TV released by Chinese TV manufacturer TCL. According to a report Thursday by market research firm Omdia, TCL’s budget RGB mini LED TV uses two blue chips and one green chip, but lacks a dedicated red chip. RGB TVs are designed to independently control red, green and blue backlights, a method widely regarded as enabling superior color reproduction and higher brightness compared with conventional white LED-based TVs. Omdia analyzed TCL’s budget model, the Q9M, saying it uses a combination of blue and green chips with red phosphors, rather than pure RGB chips, to lower production costs. Red chips are far more expensive than blue or green chips, prompting TCL to standardize the use of cheaper blue and green chips and rely on red-emitting phosphors to produce red light. Despite lacking a dedicated red chip, TCL continues to market the TV as an RGB mini LED model. “Even RGB mini LED TVs using pure RGB chips made by Chinese manufacturers have already drawn criticism over picture qua

Jan 2, 2026By Kang Seung-woo
Questions raised over TCL’s RGB mini LED TV marketing
Banking & Finance

Korea's top financial groups pledge overhaul as AI, productive finance take center stage in 2026

Korea’s four major financial holding companies — KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana and Woori — will treat the accelerating shift in technology and financial paradigms as both a challenge and an opportunity in 2026, pledging to revamp business models around productive finance while expanding into new growth areas, their chairmen said in New Year’s messages Friday. The leaders shared a focus on accelerating artificial intelligence (AI) and digital transformation; strengthening risk management and advisory-based businesses amid rapid asset shifts; and maximizing synergies across banking, securities and insurance. They also identified emerging fields such as digital assets and won-based stablecoins as key areas for securing sustainable competitiveness. KB Financial Group Chairman Yang Jong-hee outlined “transition and expansion” as the guiding principle of the group’s management strategy for 2026. “KB should safeguard its existing strengths and foundations while reshaping its business approach to adapt to a changing environment and broadening its reach to customer segments and marke

Jan 2, 2026By Jun Ji-hye
Korea's top financial groups pledge overhaul as AI, productive finance take center stage in 2026
Companies

Samsung Heavy wins $499 mil. LNG ship order in Oceania

Samsung Heavy Industries said Friday it has secured a 721.1 billion-won ($499 million) deal to build two liquefied natural gas (LNG) ships for a shipper in Oceania. The two vessels are scheduled to be delivered to the undisclosed client by September 2028, the company said in a press release. With the deal secured Wednesday, the shipbuilder said it received orders worth $7.9 billion in 2025, exceeding the previous year's total of $7.3 billion. As of the end of 2025, Samsung Heavy had an order backlog of 133 ships valued at $28.6 billion. "We exceeded expectations last year by focusing on winning orders for high value-added vessels," a company official said. "We expect a steady flow of orders amid recovering demand for LNG carriers throughout the year."

Jan 2, 2026By Yonhap
Samsung Heavy wins $499 mil. LNG ship order in Oceania
Companies

Bain Capital to acquire parent company of athleisure brand Andar

Bain Capital LP said Friday it plans to acquire EcoMarketing, the parent company of local athleisure brand Andar. The Boston-based private equity fund said it plans to purchase a stake of around 44 percent in EcoMarketing through a special purpose company (SPC), while the remaining amount will be acquired through a tender offer at 16,000 won ($11) per share. EcoMarketing holds a 57 percent stake in Andar, a popular gym wear brand, of which products are sold in countries that include Japan, Australia and Singapore. Andar has recently launched a new athleisure brand in the United States.

Jan 2, 2026By Yonhap
Bain Capital to acquire parent company of athleisure brand Andar
Tech & Science

Naver, Kakao gear up for agentic AI era in 2026

After spending last year overhauling their artificial intelligence (AI) business, Korea's two internet giants, Naver and Kakao, are now accelerating their push toward redefining their flagship search and messaging services through agentic AI. Both companies spent 2025 strengthening the application of their AI technologies, embedding large language models (LLMs) across their ecosystems to improve user engagement in their existing services. Building on these foundations, they are now positioning their AI systems to operate proactively as agentic AI, which can understand user intent, plan actions by itself and execute tasks without direct prompts from users. In November, Naver unveiled Agent N, a personalized and integrated AI agent, as its core AI strategy to leverage the company’s vast data and translate it into real actions within Naver services. It is designed to seamlessly connect Naver’s services from search and maps to calendar, reservations and content. “Users will no longer need to worry about which words to type for search. Instead, simply by conversing with Agent N, the AI

Jan 2, 2026By Lee Gyu-lee
Naver, Kakao gear up for agentic AI era in 2026
Banking & Finance

Seoul shares rise over 1% late Friday morning on chip gains

Korean stocks traded higher late Friday morning, led by sharp gains of large-cap semiconductor shares. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) added 46.38 points, or 1.1 percent, to 4,260.55 as of 11:20 a.m. The index opened higher in the first trading session of 2026 and extended gains further on solid buying by retail investors. Top-cap shares traded mixed. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics soared 3.67 percent, while chip giant SK hynix surged 2.3 percent. Defense giant Hanwha Aerospace advanced 1.81 percent, and nuclear power plant builder Doosan Enerbility increased 0.4 percent. But leading battery maker LG Energy Solution slid 1.83 percent, and major chemical firm LG Chem sank 2.25 percent. Bio giant Samsung Biologics edged down 0.18 percent, but Celltrion spiked 12.43 percent. Leading shipbuilder HD Hyundai Heavy remained unchanged, while its rival Hanwha Ocean lost 0.44 percent. Carmakers traded mixed. Top automaker Hyundai Motor went up 0.67 percent, while its sister affiliate Kia fell 0.57 percent. Internet portal operator Naver went up 0.82 percent, but No. 1 stee

Jan 2, 2026By Yonhap
Seoul shares rise over 1% late Friday morning on chip gains
Business

Online shopping sales hit record $16.75 bil. in November on food services

Online shopping sales in Korea jumped 6.8 percent from a year earlier to a record high in November, driven by strong demand for food-related services, data showed Friday. The value of online shopping transactions stood at 24.15 trillion won ($16.75 billion) in November, up 1.53 trillion won from a year earlier, according to the data from the Ministry of Data and Statistics. It marks the highest figure since 2017, when the ministry began compiling the data. Sales of food services, as well as food and beverages, climbed 13.7 percent on-year in November, largely due to the impact of promotions by food delivery platforms. Spending on travel and transportation services also rose 8.5 percent on-year, supported by a recovery in domestic and overseas travel demand and promotional events in the second half of the year. In contrast, online sales of home appliances and electronics fell 4.9 percent, largely due to a decrease in promotional events offered by online shopping malls compared with a year earlier. Purchases made through smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices increased 7.9 percent on-

Jan 2, 2026By Yonhap
Online shopping sales hit record $16.75 bil. in November on food services
Tech & Science

Korean team develops AI model for 'customized' cancer vaccine

A joint research team of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and domestic biotechnology firm Neogenlogic has developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) model that can help produce a whole new type of "personalized" cancer vaccine, the joint team said Friday. The new AI platform helps identify neoantigens unique to each cancer patient that can train the patient's immune system, and thus prevent recurrence of the illness. "Neoantigens -- mutation-derived protein fragments unique to a patient's tumor -- are the 'fingerprints' used by vaccines to train the immune system," the team, led by professor Choi Jung-kyoon of KAIST, said in a press release. "While current vaccines focus almost exclusively on activating cytotoxic T cells for immediate attack, emerging clinical evidence highlights that B cell-mediated immune memory is the key to durable, long-term antitumor responses and the prevention of recurrence," it added. Such findings were published in the Dec. 3 edition of Science Advances, a peer-reviewed scientific journal. According to the research team, its AI mo

Jan 2, 2026By Yonhap
Korean team develops AI model for 'customized' cancer vaccine
Companies

Law protecting street vendors holds back retail giants as e-commerce booms

A 15-year-old Korean law designed to protect small, self-employed vendors in traditional street markets from large superstore chains, is now stifling offline distributors as they struggle to keep up with fast-growing e-commerce platforms, leading to growing calls to modernize the outdated law. Under the Distribution Industry Development Act, mandatory closures, limits on operating hours, and other regulations on big-box retailers were scheduled to expire automatically after a set date unless renewed in November last year, but the National Assembly pushed the expiration date back to 2029. Introduced in 2010 and extended in 2015, 2020 and again last year, the measure will now be in force for nearly 20 years. While some support the law for its original intent, others argue that it has undermined the competitiveness of major offline supermarkets like Emart and Homeplus, while simultaneously driving up consumer demand for online platforms such as Coupang. Experts say the restrictions on offline distributors should be eased to create a fairer market environment for both offline retailers and

Jan 2, 2026By Ko Dong-hwan
Law protecting street vendors holds back retail giants as e-commerce booms
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