SEOUL, Feb. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s three major instant noodle makers saw their operating profits tumble in 2021 due largely to increased costs, their regulatory filings showed Wednesday. Nongshim Co., the leading maker of instant noodles, or “ramyeon” in Korean, said that its 2021 operating income plunged 33.8 percent from the previous year. [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s automobile exports fell more than 6 percent in January from a year earlier due to a global shortage of automotive chips and a high base effect, data showed Tuesday. Outbound shipments of automobiles came to 179,709 units last month, down 6.4 percent from the previous year, according [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — Dividend payouts by South Korea’s major listed firms fell more than 14 percent in 2021, but seven paid out more than 1 trillion won (US$835 million), a corporate tracker said Tuesday. The combined amount of dividends by 53 companies, including top-cap Samsung Electronics Co., stood at 28.55 trillion won [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — Foreign investors turned net sellers of South Korean stocks in January, but their net investment in local bonds continued to expand, data showed Monday. Foreigners sold a net 1.68 trillion won (US$1.4 billion) worth of local stocks last month, compared with their net purchase of 4.36 trillion won in [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — Four financial holding firms in South Korea saw their interest income surge nearly 15 percent in 2021 thanks to rising lending rates, industry data showed Monday. The combined interest income of the four holding companies — KB Financial Group Inc., Shinhan Financial Group Co., Hana Financial Group Inc. and [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — South Koreans spent a record high on Netflix last month, data showed Thursday, highlighting the video streaming giant’s popularity in the country despite a recent hike in subscription fees. Local credit and debit card payments on the video streaming platform reached 82.6 billion won (US$69 million) in January, the [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — Foreign investors continued to purchase more shares than they sold in South Korea’s stock markets for the third straight month in January, central bank data showed Thursday. Foreigners picked up a net US$1.81 billion worth of local stocks last month, according to the data provided by the Bank of [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s advertising market grew at the fastest-ever pace in 2021 on a surge in digital advertisements amid the coronavirus pandemic, a report showed Thursday. Advertising expenses in Asia’s fourth-largest economy amounted to 13.99 trillion won (US$11.7 billion) last year, up 20.4 percent from a year earlier, according to [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — The combined global market share of three major South Korean battery makers declined last year from a year earlier, due largely to the growth of their Chinese rivals, data showed Monday. The cumulative market share of LG Energy Solution Ltd. (LGES), SK Innovation Co. and Samsung SDI Co. came [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — Sales of imported vehicles in South Korea fell 22 percent in January from a year earlier as chip shortages continued to disrupt vehicle production, an industry association said Monday. The number of newly registered foreign vehicles fell to 17,361 units last month from 22,321 units a year ago, the [...]