South Korea's No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix Inc. said Thursday its net profit shot up 61.5 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier on robust sales of server and mobile dynamic random access memory (DRAM) products. Net profit came to 1.29 trillion won ($1.2 billion) in the January-March period, compared with 802.5 billion won a year earlier, the company said in its regulatory filing. Revenue...

SK C&C Co., an IT service unit of South Korea's No. 3 conglomerate SK Group, said Monday it will merge with SK Holdings Co. through a stock swap deal, a move seen as part of groupwide efforts to solidify its chairman's grip on the group. The deal is the latest in a series of moves by the country's conglomerates to revamp their ownership structure, and is expected to help the group's chairman Che...

Kia Motors Corp.'s all-new Carnival minivan has received the highest safety rating for collision tests conducted by a U.S. highway safety agency, the company said Thursday. The Carnival minivan, also known as the Sedona in the U.S., has received the highest rating of five stars from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in overall safety tests, according to the company. It received...

Hyundai Motor Co. and its smaller affiliate Kia Motors Corp. said Thursday that they posted record monthly sales in Europe last month on growing demand for their strategic car models targeting local customers. Hyundai Motor said that its Europe sales in March came to 48,215 units, up 11.9 percent from the previous year when it sold 43,076 cars. This marked the largest monthly sales following 48,...

South Korean retail conglomerate Lotte, which operates retail channels including duty-free shops, said Wednesday that it has withdrawn its bid to buy an Italian duty-free company. "Lotte Group has considered acquiring Italian World Duty Free from many different angles, but the WDF has notified us to discontinue the process with Lotte Group, due to simultaneous talks with another company," Lotte ...

Samsung SDS Co., an information technology solution arm of South Korea's top conglomerate, Samsung Group, said Wednesday it is aiming to almost triple its annual sales to 20 trillion won ($18.2 billion) by 2020 by expanding its mainstay IT-outsourcing business. Last year, Samsung SDS, established in 1985, raked in 7.8 trillion won in sales. "Samsung has been dealing well with paradigm changes i...

LG Electronics Inc., South Korea's No. 2 tech firm, said Wednesday it will release a low-end smartphone that boasts a slightly curved screen, giving an early peek of the flagship G4 smartphone set to hit shelves later this month. Although not as curved as the G Flex 2 released earlier this year, which has a curvature of 650-750R, the LG Volt will come with a 4.7-inch HD in-plane switching displa...

Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's top automaker, denied a media report Wednesday that it is seeking to build a factory in Mexico, calling it "groundless." Bloomberg earlier reported that Hyundai Motor is pushing to build a plant in Mexico, citing an interview with a high-ranking official of the local unit of the automaker. He was quoted as saying that Hyundai's car production in the country will ...

Hyundai Motor Co. and its smaller affiliate Kia Motors Corp. saw domestic sales of their full-size sedans drop sharply in the face of intensifying competition from foreign brands, industry data showed Tuesday. According to the data, Hyundai Motor, the country's largest carmaker, sold 19,919 units of the Grandeur during the first quarter of this year, down 15.7 percent from a year earlier. The G...

Sales of Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy S6 Edge, a curved sister of the new flagship Galaxy S6 smartphone, have been much higher than expected, industry sources said Tuesday, with its supply unlikely to meet surging demand for the time being. Samsung rolled out the latest smartphone models in 20 countries on Friday, hoping they will help revitalize its ailing mobile business and take on Apple ...

South Korea's top portal operator Naver Corp. said Monday it will seek to add more transparency to its management of privacy by having exclusive lawyers review and possibly reject warrants, amid rising concerns over the government's censorship online. "Starting in April, Naver will adopt a new system in which lawyers review warrants issued by state investigators, to make sure that they do not vi...

Lotte Group said Sunday it plans to relocate the offices of its founder and chairman to a 123-story skyscraper under construction in southeastern Seoul, in an apparent bid to ease the public's concerns over the building's safety. Under the plan, group founder Shin Kyuk-ho, and his son Dong-bin, the group chairman, will move their offices to the skyscraper next year, along with 200 other employee...

Hyundai Engineering Co. and LG International Co. said Thursday that they have "in effect" clinched a combined $4.8 billion worth of deals to improve and build plants in Turkmenistan. The consortium led by the two will sign a $940 million contract with Turkmenistan's state-run oil company on Monday to modernize refinery plants there, they said. The deal is designed to construct facilities that r...

LG Electronics Inc., South Korea's leading home appliance maker, said Thursday it has rolled out its latest premium TV models in the United States, as part of efforts to grab a bigger share in the North America region. LG unveiled the Ultra OLED TV and Super Ultra HD TV before the press at a launch event held in New York, the company said in a statement. The Ultra OLED TV and Super Ultra HD TV ...

Hyundai Steel Co., South Korea's No. 2 steelmaker, said Wednesday that its board approved a deal to take over Hyundai Hysco Co., a move expected to increase synergy between the two companies. The takeover deal was approved at a board meeting held earlier in the day, Hyundai Steel said in a regulatory filing. Under the deal that needs to be endorsed in a shareholder meeting, Hyundai Steel will i...