The number of credit rating downgrades for South Korean companies rose to a 15-year high last year amid weakening earnings and a protracted economic slump, data showed Monday. According to data compiled by the Korea Investors Service Inc., ratings for 41 of the 373 companies appraised were downgraded last year, the largest amount since 1999. Fifteen companies were graded up last year, also the ...

Cheil Industries Inc., the de facto holding company of South Korea's top conglomerate, Samsung Group, decided Friday to make an investment of more than 400 billion won ($356.2 million) this year instead of paying out a dividend. The decision came during the shareholders meeting earlier in the day, which was held in private. The company, whose mainstay businesses include fashion and resort manage...

Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's largest automaker, will actively consider launching a committee tasked with improving the company's governance structure and increasing communication with shareholders, its head said Friday. The remarks by Hyundai Motor CEO Kim Choong-ho came in response to a foreign investor's proposal during an annual general meeting of shareholders to launch such a committee i...

LG Group, South Korea's fourth-largest conglomerate, said Thursday it will spend 6.3 trillion won ($5.59 billion) on research and development (R&D) activities this year, up by 400 billion won, or some 7 percent from a year ago, focusing on enhancing its two core areas - the handset-making and chemical businesses. It is the first time for LG, whose key business portfolio covers making electronic ...

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's top smartphone maker, is bolstering the global sales of low-end handsets to maintain its leading market presence, with the latest release of its high-end Galaxy S6 series, industry sources said Thursday. The South Korean tech giant has recently decided to roll out the new budget smartphone model Galaxy J1 in the Netherlands and Germany, expanding its target c...

Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's top carmaker, is considering setting up a second plant in the United States in an effort to up its production of full-size vehicles in line with rising demand in the world's No. 1 economy, industry sources said Wednesday. The new factory, set to be built near the carmaker's current Alabama plant, would have an annual production capacity of 300,000 units and used ...

Daum Kakao Corp., the operator of South Korea's top mobile messenger, said Monday its 2014 net profit more than doubled from a year earlier, aided by robust sales from e-commerce platforms and mobile advertising. Net profit amounted to 149.8 billion won (US$135.1 million) last year, up 126.7 percent from the previous year, the company said in a regulatory filing. Daum Kakao's operating profit j...

LG Display Co., South Korea's flat panel giant, will make an investment this year comparable to last year's in order to vie with rivals such as Samsung Electronics Co., its chief executive said Monday. "We'll go with a similar level (of amount) to last year's, within the threshold of the EBITDA," LG Display CEO Han Sang-beom told reporters after a regular meeting held by the Korea Display Indust...

Pantech Co., a defaulted South Korean smartphone maker currently under court protection, will be put up for an opening bidding again after the latest attempt to sell the firm to a U.S. consortium fell through, a Seoul court said Monday. The Seoul Central District Court has sought to sell the nation's No. 3 smartphone maker through an open bidding following the botched public tender in November t...

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's top smartphone maker that recorded a three-year-low bottom line last year, posted the worst net sales on its home soil in eight years in that period, weakened by its sluggish handset business, an audit report showed Monday. Net sales of the South Korean tech powerhouse reached 20.7 trillion won ($18.8 billion) in Asia's fourth-largest economy in 2014, down 9 ...

Samsung Electronics Co. is set to cut 10 percent of its development staff in the visual display division, a company source said Thursday. According to a source with knowledge of the matter, the firm is conducting one-on-one talks with the division's employees to discuss leaving the company. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the step has yet to be made public, said the compa...

South Korea's top conglomerate Samsung, which holds one of the leading smartphone makers Samsung Electronics Co. under its wing, was declared as the second-most valuable brand in the globe, data showed Thursday. The price tag on the Samsung brand was estimated at $81.7 billion in 2015, up 4 percent from a year earlier, according to the data released by market researcher Brand Finance. The top th...

Asiana Airlines Co., South Korea's No. 2 carrier, said Wednesday it has agreed on a settlement with some of the passengers on its 2013 flight that crash-landed in San Francisco, leaving three people dead. "It is true that a settlement has been reached in the U.S. federal court with 72 passengers who suffered from the accident two years ago," a company official told Yonhap News Agency. "The finan...

The heir apparent of South Korea's top conglomerate, Samsung Group, has met with U.S. credit card company executives during his recent visit to the country, seeking possible tie-ups for its new mobile payment platform, Samsung Pay, the group's chief spokesman said Wednesday. Lee Jay-yong, the only son of the group owner Lee Kun-hee, held a meeting with a few chief executives of U.S. credit card ...

South Korea's top family-controlled business giant, Samsung Group, is reorganizing staff at its affiliates, the chief spokesman said Wednesday. "As far as I know, each affiliate is conducting (reshuffles of their workforces)," Lee Jun, Samsung Group's top communications official, told reporters. He said the decisions would be based on the judgments of each company and not on orders from the head...