SEOUL, Jan. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea will expand tax incentives for companies to increase investments and permit more firms seeking innovative technologies to receive tax credits on research and development (R&D) costs, the finance ministry said Wednesday. The country will expand the scope of corporate assets eligible for tax credits and offer more [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — Major South Korean companies in carbon intensive industries are jacking up investment in hydrogen across sectors to cut their greenhouse emissions and capture new business opportunities in the emerging energy sector. Hydrogen can offer solutions in fields ranging from transport to energy storage as an alternative to fossil fuels [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean companies’ earnings declined by the most in 11 years in 2019, as the manufacturing sector remained sluggish amid the global economic slowdown, data showed Tuesday. Their combined before-tax net profit reached 102 trillion won (US$93.3 billion) in 2019, down 37.1 percent from the previous year, according to [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — Corporate ownership of land in South Korea has been on a steady rise in recent years amid rising criticism of conglomerates’ real estate investment, government data showed Tuesday. South Korean companies owned 6.953 square kilometers of land in 2019, up 1.7 percent from a year earlier, according to the [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean companies on average spent 5.34 million won (US$4,584) each month to hire one worker in 2019, up 2.8 percent from the previous year, the labor ministry said Wednesday. The figure, which includes monthly salary, severance pay, insurance fees and miscellaneous costs, came from data collected from companies [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — Large South Korean companies have actively engaged in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) this year despite the economic fallout of the coronavirus outbreak, industry data showed Wednesday. Big businesses in Asia’s fourth-largest economy spent a combined 11.45 trillion won (US$9.7 billion) in 52 M&A cases in the first eights months [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 31 (Korea Bizwire) — Local companies’ demand for new employees in the second and third quarters has fallen to the lowest level in 11 years, a government report showed Monday, as the spread of the coronavirus pandemic continues to weigh down the job market. According to the report issued by the Ministry of [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — Major dividend-paying firms in South Korea have decided not to pay interim dividends this year due to tumbling earnings amid the coronavirus pandemic, industry sources said Thursday. S-Oil Corp., a major oil refiner known for paying high dividends, has decided to skip interim dividends this summer because of worsening [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — Leading South Korean companies’ entertainment expenses sank nearly 13 percent in 2018 on a draconian anti-graft law that came into effect two years earlier, government data showed Wednesday. A total of 7,402 companies spent a combined 3.16 trillion won (US$2.66 billion) in 2018, down 12.7 percent from 2016, according [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean companies are taking additional steps to stem the spread of the new coronavirus, as the government has applied a stricter social distancing level amid soaring infections. The country’s major companies said they are adopting stricter quarantine measures for their employees, offices and production facilities due to a [...]