Shui On Land CEO Resigns as Billionaire Lo Takes Active Role

Shui On Land CEO Resigns as Billionaire Lo Takes Active Role

Shui On Land Ltd. (272), the Chinese developer that’s been selling assets to cut debt, said Chief Executive Officer Freddy Lee quit after less than three years and billionaire Chairman Vincent Lo will resume a more active role. Read more of this post

India Bets on Modinomics, Whatever It Is

India Bets on Modinomics, Whatever It Is

Asia has grown inordinately fond of “-nomics,” slapping the suffix on grand-sounding growth programs in such places as Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand and China. Read more of this post

India May Keep Gold-Import Curbs Past March to Contain Deficit

India May Keep Gold-Import Curbs Past March to Contain Deficit

India should retain curbs on gold imports at least until March to stabilize the current-account deficit that weakened the rupee to a record low last year, Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram said. Read more of this post

India Removes Hurdle for Posco Project Before Park Visit

India Removes Hurdle for Posco Project Before Park Visit

India cleared a key hurdle for Posco’s 520 billion-rupee ($8.4 billion) steel plant a week before South Korean President Park Geun Hye’s visit, signaling the project may move forward after an eight-year delay. Read more of this post

Lactalis to Buy Carlyle-Backed Indian Dairy Producer Tirumala; India was the No. 3 producer of liquid, or non-powdered, cow’s milk in the world in 2013, behind the European Union and U.S.

Lactalis to Buy Carlyle-Backed Indian Dairy Producer Tirumala

Groupe Lactalis SA, the maker of President brand cheeses, agreed to buy Indian dairy producer Tirumala Milk Products Pvt. from Carlyle Group LP (CG) and its owners, in its first acquisition in the South Asian nation. Read more of this post

Indian Standard Time Breaks Down

Indian Standard Time Breaks Down

The northeastern state of Assam (population 30 million) is associated in the Indian imagination mainly with lush tea gardens and a long-running insurgency that seeks to establish an independent Assamese state. But last week, Assam rebelled against an order perhaps even more tyrannous on an everyday level than the one embodied by distant New Delhi: It announced it would soon secede from Indian Standard Time. Read more of this post

Tata group turns circumspect under Cyrus Mistry

January 9, 2014 2:15 am

Tata group turns circumspect under Cyrus Mistry

By James Crabtree in Mumbai

It would once have been a familiar sight: the Tata group limbering up for a landmark deal with a blue-chip western company – in this case Britain’s Vodafone, to which the conglomerate is discussing selling a majority stake in its struggling mobile business. Read more of this post

Tens of Thousands Join India Anti-Graft Party

Tens of Thousands Join India Anti-Graft Party

By Abhaya Srivastava on 5:29 pm January 11, 2014.

Indian Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal (C) gestures with his ink-marked finger after casting his vote for the Delhi state assembly election in New Delhi on December 4, 2013. (AFP Photo) New Delhi. India’s new anti-graft party has signed up tens of thousands of members in a nationwide recruitment drive as it seeks to build support ahead of general elections, an official said Saturday. Read more of this post

A third branch of Sweden’s famous Ikea furniture store could be set up in southeastern Seoul as early as 2017

Ikea wants third store to be in Seoul

Jan 07,2014

A third branch of Sweden’s famous Ikea furniture store could be set up in southeastern Seoul as early as 2017.
Ikea’s first two Korean stores are scheduled to open in Gyeonggi in the second half of this year and in two to three years. According to the Gangdong District government yesterday, Ikea has expressed its intention to buy 13,000 square meters (3.21 acres) of land in Godeuk commercial zone, southeastern Seoul.
The local government is still negotiating with the Swedish company. Even if the local government inks an agreement with Ikea in the first half of this year, final approval from the Seoul City government is required.  Read more of this post

Behind Korea’s customer-friendly delivery culture

Behind Korea’s customer-friendly delivery culture

Sunday, January 12, 2014 – 10:42

Bae Hyun-jung

The Korea Herald/Asia News Network

There are few things that cannot be delivered in this short-tempered, fast-moving and tightly networked country. Overnight parcel services are taken for granted. Fully cooked meals and snacks may be ordered around the clock. Even McDonald’s Korea uses a motorcycle fleet to make home deliveries of burgers and fries. Read more of this post

Is Park overly ambitious for $30,000 per capita income era?

2014-01-06 17:50

Is Park overly ambitious for $30,000 era?

Na Jeong-ju
President Park Geun-hye looked determined when she talked about her plan to raise the country’s per capita income to over $30,000 in a nationally-televised New Year news conference Monday. Read more of this post

Korea lost 612 construction companies last year as builders continued to be squeezed by a stubborn slump in the domestic market; more than 2,200 general construction companies have disappeared since 2005

Construction firms dwindle

Association’s data shows industry shed 612 companies in 2013

Jan 10,2014

Korea lost 612 construction companies last year as builders continued to be squeezed by a stubborn slump in the domestic market, according to data from the Construction Association of Korea.  Read more of this post

Korea Exchange Considers Longer Hours While Mulling Acquisitions

Korea Exchange Considers Longer Hours While Mulling Acquisitions

South Korea’s bourse operator may extend trading hours for Asia’s fourth-biggest equity market and will consider overseas acquisitions after local trading volumes slumped to a six-year low. Read more of this post

Korea’s major hotels and duty free shops are feeling the pinch from the weakening yen because their sales have been falling sharply due to a drop in the number of Japanese tourists coming here.

2014-01-06 18:40

Weak yen hits hotels, duty free shops

Yi Whan-woo

Korea’s major hotels and duty free shops are feeling the pinch from the weakening yen because their sales have been falling sharply due to a drop in the number of Japanese tourists coming here. Read more of this post

Korea’s major pharmaceutical firms are turning their eyes to overseas markets in order to compensate for falling profits from domestic sales

2014-01-10 16:21

Drug makers eye overseas markets

By Kim Tae-jong
Korea’s major pharmaceutical firms are turning their eyes to overseas markets in order to compensate for falling profits from domestic sales.
“Now we all know that we should seek to advance into overseas markets in order to make up for reduced profits due to drug price cuts,” Lee gun-nyung, assistant manager at the investment relations team of Daewoong Pharmaceutical. “But it is very challenging to compete with global pharmaceutical firms.” Read more of this post

LS Group, the nation’s largest cable manufacturer, said that it will shut down its affiliate, JS Cable, to take responsibility for last year’s nuclear reactor corruption scandal

LS Group to shutter JS Cable unit

Jan 07,2014

LS Group, the nation’s largest cable manufacturer, yesterday said that it will shut down its affiliate, JS Cable, to take responsibility for last year’s nuclear reactor corruption scandal. Read more of this post

President Park Geun-hye is apparently following in her father Park Chung-hee’s footsteps in her governing style

2014-01-07 18:58

Like father, like daughter

President Park Geun-hye, left, and her father and former President Park Chung-hee

By Kim Tae-gyu
President Park Geun-hye is apparently following in her father Park Chung-hee’s footsteps in her governing style, observers said Tuesday. Read more of this post

S. Korea’s debt grows at alarming level; S. Korea household debt estimated to have topped $935bn; Credit risks of S. Korea large firms hit 4-year high in Q4

S. Korea household debt estimated to have topped $935bn

2014.01.07 15:25:13

South Korea’s household debt is projected to have already exceeded 1,000 trillion won ($935.2 billion).

The estimate came after the outstanding balance of household debt, which includes household loans from all financial institutions and credit purchases provided by credit card issuers, came to 991.7 trillion won in late September of 2013, while depository institutions’ lending alone increased nine trillion won in October and November last year.  Read more of this post

Samsung Electronics’ big worker bonus has shareholders sulking

Updated: Tuesday January 7, 2014 MYT 7:18:54 PM

Samsung Electronics’ big worker bonus has shareholders sulking

SEOUL: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, the world’s largest smartphone maker, has reignited shareholder calls for more returns after splashing out on a special employee bonus estimated at nearly US$1bil. Read more of this post

Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee plans to host a New Year’s dinner gathering for president-level executives on Jan 9, which also marks his 72nd birthday

2014-01-09 11:18

Samsung chairman to host gathering with staff

Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee plans to host a New Year’s dinner gathering for president-level executives Thursday, which also marks his 72nd birthday.

• The country’s richest man has invited senior Samsung executives to his birthday celebrations since 2008.  Lee’s remarks are often closely watched as they can set the tone not just for South Korea’s largest market-cap conglomerate he inherited from his father but also for the entire business community.

Lee will attend a separate ceremony prior to the dinner to award dedicated employees, company officials said. Read more of this post

Samsung Wants to Be the World’s Biggest Appliance Maker by 2015

Samsung Wants to Be the World’s Biggest Appliance Maker by 2015

By Sam Grobart January 09, 2014

The technology industry hums with disruptive new companies that enter the market by taking share away from others or creating markets of their own. But kitchen appliances? The brands that dominate the field today—Whirlpool (WHR), General Electric (GE),Kenmore (SHLD)—are the same names we’ve known for decades. Samsung Electronics plans to upend that. Read more of this post

Shilla Duty Free, an affiliate of Samsung Group, secured the rights to run perfume and cosmetics stores at Changi Airport in Singapore from October this year to September 2020

2014-01-08 17:07

Shilla to run shops at Changi Airport

This is an artist’s impression of a perfume and cosmetics store to be operated by Shilla Duty Free at Changi Airport in Singapore from October to September 2020

By Yi Whan-woo
Shilla Duty Free, an affiliate of Samsung Group, secured the rights to run perfume and cosmetics stores at Changi Airport in Singapore, the company announced Wednesday. Read more of this post

Financial regulators to tighten access to lending for pricy ‘jeonse’ tenants

Financial regulators to tighten access to lending for pricy ‘jeonse’ tenants

2014.01.09 15:11:14

South Korea will drastically step up regulation of loans to tenants who pay high ‘jeonse’ deposits (lump-sum deposits) as early as next month.
They will have more difficult access to non-banking lenders such as mutual finance companies, and an increasing number of people in the vulnerable class will be subject to debt relief plan.  Read more of this post