The US-based global banking giant Citigroup will reportedly spend up to $1.5 billion, or 1.8 trillion won, on the withdrawal of its retail business in South Korea, according to news reports Tuesday. The group said in a regulatory filing that its expenditure on severance pay for employees at the Korean subsidiary’s retail banking operations will range between $1.2 billion and $1.5 billion. It wil...

Seoul-based family office Topor & Co. Korea, co-led by investment banking professional and TV celebrity Mark Tetto, said Tuesday the company has obtained an asset management license in South Korea to expand services for its client base. The move is aimed at expanding its current client offerings to include the privately placed fund business for qualified professional investors under Korean law, ...

The megahit Netflix series “Squid Game” depicts a dystopian world where 456 people compete in a series of extreme survival games on a remote island. The sole winner takes all the prize money, while everyone else bites the dust. In the real world, all the “Squid Game” deaths would be eligible for insurance coverage, according to a local insurance company. The question is whether those death benef...

Citibank Korea, the South Korean unit of Citigroup, has ramped up efforts to gain an upper hand in sustainable financing, focused on environmental, social and governance factors, to support local companies’ ESG management, the lender said Sunday. Sustainable financing refers to a bank’s financial services, ranging from loans to bonds, designed to provide financial support for sustainable economi...

US investment firm KKR & Co. said Friday it has acquired newly issued redeemable convertible preferred shares of South Korean energy company SK E&S for 2.4 trillion won ($2 billion). The investment, via KKR‘s Asia Pacific Infrastructure Fund, will provide KKR with an opportunity to receive cash or in-kind redemption for repayment in the future, as well as an opportunity to convert the securities...

Convenience store chain operator BGF has confirmed Friday its plan to acquire a stake in engineering plastic resin maker Kopla for at least 180.8 billion won ($152.6 million), in a strategic move to enter into a new business, sending its shares jumping nearly 30 percent at some point. According to filings with the Financial Supervisory Service, BGF is poised to acquire 11 million common shares o...

South Korean institutional investors have allocated a combined 90 million euros ($104 million) of commitment to a separately structured coinvestment vehicle of a fourth flagship fund by BlackRock Infrastructure Solutions, industry sources said Thursday. Seoul-based investment house IPM Asset Management said Thursday it has created the vehicle for Korean investors, allowing them to implement a co...

FACO plans to digitalize artworks, auction and sell them globally through BIZA-UVIT. GMAEA will use AMAXG’s two-way artificial intelligence education platform named BIZA-Metaversity, BIZA-UVIT and a decentralized person-to-person shopping mall called BIZA Empire Mall. “AMAXG is securing the world’s only original technology that enables building big data and linking AI using blockchain,” said Ch...

K bank, South Korea’s first internet-only bank, saw its third-quarter earnings surge 115 percent from the previous quarter on the growing number of customers and amount of money deposited, officials said Tuesday. It was the first time the bank posted a net profit for two quarters in a row since its inception in 2017. It posted its first quarterly profit of 3.9 billion won ($3.32 million) three m...

Blockchain and information technology consulting firm Baobab Partners will launch a nonfungible token marketplace on Thursday, the firm said Tuesday. The platform, named Baobab NFT, can be accessed through the firm’s blockchain portal and website at bao-bab.co.kr. Through the marketplace, Ethereum- and Klaytn-based NFTs can be issued, sold and purchased with crypto and NFT wallets MetaMask and K...

South Korean midcap buyout fund VIG Partners said Monday it has selected domestic private equity firm Stonebridge Capital as the preferred bidder to sell its stake in massage chair company Bodyfriend. The selling price will be announced when the proposed buyer and seller sign a binding deal by the end of this year, according to VIG Partners. VIG Partners said in a statement the deal will prompt...

Keppel Investment Management, the South Korean arm of Singapore-based real estate investor Keppel Capital Holdings, has purchased Sheraton Seoul D Cube for 131.7 billion won ($117.9 million) to embark on a redevelopment project to turn the hotel into a commercial office building. In the latest indication that luxury hotels in Seoul are increasingly losing their luster, Sheraton Seoul D Cube, loc...

Shinhan Financial Group said Monday that it has signed a deal to acquire BNP Paribas Cardif’s non-life-insurance subsidiary in South Korea in a bid to diversify its business portfolio to include the digital insurance sector. Through the share purchase agreement inked Friday, the Korean banking group will hold a 94.54 percent stake in BNP Paribas Cardif General Insurance, a firm that BNP Paribas ...

South Korea’s financial authorities have called on local banks to take action to ensure a stable supply of credit loans and tighter supervision of household debts, officials said Sunday. The policymaking Financial Services Commission and the market watchdog Financial Supervisory Service reportedly advised the nation’s commercial banks to submit the action plans, which can be either monthly or qu...

South Korean gaming firm Krafton has inked a deal to acquire 100 percent ownership of US video game developer Unknown Worlds Entertainment for $750 million, in the first takeover deal it has announced since the company went public in August, a filing showed Sunday. According to the disclosure filed with the Financial Supervisory Service, Krafton, a Tencent Holdings-backed company behind the batt...