BlackRock Real Assets said Wednesday it has signed an agreement to acquire an undisclosed amount of equity stake in South Korean solar aggregator and operator Brite Energy Partners. The US-based investment firm aims to inject more than $100 million capital over time to fund the acquisition and construction of solar assets of over 350 megawatts in power generation capacity. All projects developed...

The National Pension Service, South Korea’s public pension scheme, divested its entire 11.5 million shares in General Electric as of end-June, a regulatory filing showed Wednesday. The world’s third-largest pension fund no longer held a share in Boston-based conglomerate General Electric, which was the 66th-largest stake it built with a $151.6 million valuation in March, according to quarterly f...

Danggeun Market, operator of hyperlocal e-commerce app Karrot, said Wednesday it has fetched a $162 million funding in a series D round with an enterprise valuation of $2.7 billion. The latest round of funding, led by Hong Kong-based later-stage venture capital house DST Global, was joined by Aspex Management and Reverent Partners. Also taking part in the fundraising were existing investors Good...

South Korea’s financial watchdog will launch an investigation into electronic payment service providers and their operations amid growing concerns over consumer protection in a row involving local discount app operator Mergeplus. The Financial Supervisory Service has been under fire for failing to monitor risks and eliminate legal gray areas on the back of fast-growing electronic payment service...

Dunamu, the operator of Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, on Tuesday said it planned to unveil its own “travel rule” solution in September through its blockchain technology research arm Lambda256. The travel rule is a global standard imposed by the Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental anti-money laundering watchdog, on virtual asset service providers such as cryptocurre...

Citibank Korea is likely to make its long-awaited announcement for its retail business exit plan on Aug. 26, after confirming the strategy at a scheduled board meeting, an industry source said Tuesday. The South Korean subsidiary of the US-based global banking giant had initially said it would confirm the plan in July, but the decision-making process was delayed on apparent conflicts of interest...

South Korea’s NH NongHyup Bank said Tuesday it launched a virtual Dokdo branch, which customers can visit on its mobile app and subscribe to financial products tied to the nation’s easternmost islets. The virtual space, designed to celebrate the bank’s 60th anniversary, offers users of All One Bank app with Dokdo-themed environmental, social and governance-related financial products. Users can a...

Citibank Korea Inc., the South Korean unit of Citigroup Inc., will decide on its exit plan for its retail banking unit next week, an industry source said Tuesday. Citibank Korea will hold a board meeting Aug. 26 during which the lender will confirm how to sell the retail banking division. In April, Citigroup said it will exit consumer banking operations in 13 markets, including South Korea, as ...

The blame game between financial authorities and discount app operator Mergeplus intensified Monday, leaving customers who bought coupons uncertain as to whether they would lose their money. Mergeplus launched Mergepoint, an electronic payment service, in 2018. Consumers can buy Mergepoints for 20 percent less than their face value, and use them in local retail franchises, convenience stores and...

NH NongHyup Bank said Thursday it has launched a branch office in London to make inroads into the UK’s banking industry, as part of the lender’s overseas business strategies aimed at expanding its global presence. “It is meaningful that (NH NongHyup Bank) has entered the UK market, Europe‘s major global finance center and the birthplace of financial cooperatives, in 2021, which marks its 60th an...

South Korean banks saw their first-half earnings jump 59 percent from a year earlier due largely to a one-off gain by state policy lender Korea Development Bank (KDB), data showed Wednesday. The combined net profit stood at 10.8 trillion won ($9.35 billion) in the January-June period, compared with a profit of 6.8 trillion won the previous year, according to the data from the Financial Superviso...

South Korean banks' household loans jumped in July, fueled by demand for home-backed lending and overdrafts for stock investments, central bank data showed Wednesday. Outstanding bank loans to local households came to 1,040.2 trillion won (US$902 billion) as of end-July, up 9.7 trillion won from a month earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). It marked the largest on-month ...

South Korea‘s gaming giant Netmarble has divested a 1.3 percent stake in KakaoBank to cash in 430.2 billion won ($372.8 million), a filing showed Wednesday. The disclosure came on the heels of the mobile-only lender’s blockbuster debut on the Korea Exchange on Friday, opening the doors for the early-stage investor in the lender to carry out a partial exit from its investment target. According t...

Financial Services Commission Chairman Eun Sung-soo on Tuesday called on the heads of five major banking groups here to ramp up efforts to curb snowballing household debt. “A steep increase in household debt was inevitable for the real economy to minimize the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, but the growth pace of household debt has been too rapid, raising calls for tighter household...

KTB Asset Management has closed a 550 billion won ($478.8 million) commitment to Bridge Debt Strategies Fund IV, a pooled investment vehicle mainly targeting securitized multifamily residential housing loans in the United States, the company said Tuesday. The Seoul-based asset manager added it has attracted capital commitments from eight undisclosed South Korean institutional investors, targetin...