SEOUL, April 4 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean chicken burger chain Mom’s Touch&Co. said Tuesday it inked a master franchise agreement with Mongolia’s Foodville Farm LLC, in its first steps to enter the central Asian country. Foodville Farm is an independent company established by the local franchise operator Monbakery LLC to expand the Mom’s Touch [...]
SEOUL, April 4 (Korea Bizwire) — Major South Korean companies’ inventories surged nearly 30 percent in 2022 from a year earlier amid a global economic slump, a corporate tracker said Tuesday. Combined inventories of 212 out of the country’s top 500 firms by sales reached 175.5 trillion won (US$134 billion) as of end-December last year, [...]
SEOUL, April 3 (Korea Bizwire) — Business circles hosted a welcoming event for a visiting inspection team of the international body in charge of overseeing the World Expo on Monday and made their pitch for the country’s bid to hold the event in 2030. The inspection team of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) arrived [...]
SEOUL, April 3 (Korea Bizwire) — Hanwha Group has received approval from the European Union for its plan to acquire Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME), company officials said Monday. The EU’s decision came earlier than expected, as it was widely expected to deliver the result of its review in mid-April. Hanwha has obtained [...]
SEOUL, April 3 (Korea Bizwire) — Concerns are growing among South Korean companies over the potential abuse of ChatGPT and the risk of confidential information leakage. Samsung Electronics Co.’s Device eXperience (DX) division, which handles mobile devices and appliances, currently conducting a survey of its employees regarding the use of ChatGPT. The survey includes questions [...]
SEOUL, April 2 (Korea Bizwire) — The first-quarter earnings outlook for South Korea’s major companies, including the world’s leading chipmakers Samsung Electronics Co. and SK hynix Inc., remains grim due mainly to sluggish global demand, an analysis of industry data showed Sunday. According to securities firms’ forecasts compiled by Yonhap Infomax, Samsung Electronics is projected [...]
SEOUL, April 1 (Korea Bizwire) — Lotte Duty Free said Friday its operating loss widened last year due to the prolonged COVID-19 lockdown in China and the dollar’s weakness. The duty-free operator posted an operating loss of 139.5 billion won (US$106.8 million) for the entire year of 2022, up from 28.8 billion won in 2021, [...]
SEOUL, March 31 (Korea Bizwire) – Woowa Brothers Corp., operator of the popular food delivery app Baedal Minjok, said Friday it shifted to a net profit in 2022 from a year earlier on increased demand for food delivery services during the pandemic. The delivery app operator swung to a net profit of 275.8 billion won [...]
SEOUL, March 31 (Korea Bizwire) — A majority of foreign-invested companies with a presence in South Korea are considering expanding their investment in this country, the business lobby group said Thursday. The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) conducted a survey of 95 foreign-invested businesses and found that 64.2 percent of the respondents said [...]
SEOUL, March 30 (Korea Bizwire) — Rice production costs in South Korea rose 9.3 percent on-year in 2022 due mainly to soaring prices of fertilizers, causing net profit from rice farming to sink nearly 40 percent, data showed Thursday. Farmers spent 31,631 won (US$24.24) to produce 20 kilograms of rice last year, up 2,689 won [...]