Benikea has won the Best Hotel Chain Prize in the Korea Best Brand Awards 2014. It is Korea’s first mid-price hotel chain brand developed by the Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO). The name is an abbreviation of Best Night in Korea.The purpose of the brand

Toray Advanced Materials Korea, the local unit of Japanese chemical firm Toray Industries, has completed the acquisition of Woongjin Chemical.Toray Advanced Materials Korea said on March 3 that its takeover of Woonjin was completed last week by making a payment for a 56.21 percent stake in the Korea

Local car manufacturers’ sales in February turned out to be for the better, but GM Korea slowed due to drastic drop in exports, in spite its good local sales.According to industry sources on March 3, the combined sales of five local automakers reached 689,100 vehicles in February, up 5.8% from 651,2

Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Mongolian state-owned company Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi and Mongolia’s largest drilling company Elgen LCC to strength the construction of the Korean-Mongolian research cooperation network. As a result, plant technologies aimed

STX Offshore & Shipbuilding has succeeded in obtaining a large-scale order, ending a long-time silence since its making the voluntary self-rescue agreement with creditors.On March 3, the struggling Korean shipbuilder said it obtained an order worth 620 billion won (US$578.9 million) from Navig 8 Pro

Sony sells its real estate assets in and around the District in Tokyo, including the NS Building that was used as its headquarters from 1990 to 2006. The price is estimated at 15 to 20 billion yen (US$147.9 to 197.2 million). Once the disposal is completed, only the corporate museum of Sony will rem

Samsung Electronics made a final decision to extend its employees’ retirement age to 60 and adopt a peak salary. Many other subsidiaries of the Samsung Group will complete their wage system reform within this month. Specifically, Samsung Petrochemical, Samsung Total, Samsung Engineering and the cons

Samsung Electronics introduces a salary peak system this year, while extending the retirement age to 60. Samsung’s salary system reform at this time is expected to create a breakthrough in the other big businesses’ related discussions. They have been unwilling to move ahead with discussions so far,

The System LSI Division of Samsung Electronics released six new system-on-chip products on February 26, including an application processor (AP), a CMOS image sensor, and a communication chip. It is unprecedented that the division launched as many products at one time. Although no launch event was he

It has been found that the damages to customers of non-Korean low-cost carriers (LCCs) is rapidly on the rise. The Korea Consumer Agency announced on February 26 that a total of 296 complaints were submitted by LCC customers last year, increasing 148.7% from a year earlier.In particular, the number

SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Yonhap) – The nation’s top court on Thursday upheld a four-year jail sentence against the head of the country’s third-largest conglomerate, SK Group, for embezzling company funds.Chey Tae-won was convicted of embezzling 46.5 billion won (US$43.6 million) from two SK Group affiliates,

Hyundai Motor Company unveiled the design of its HED-9 hydrogen fuel cell concept car on Feb. 24. This model is making its debut at the Geneva Motor Show 2014, which kicks off on March 4.HED-9 is the ninth concept car presented by Hyundai Design Center Europe located in Ruesselsheim, Germany. Its Na

Samsung Life Insurance is continuing real estate investment abroad in order to diversify its asset management portfolio amid the low interest rate trend as of late. The company announced on February 25 that it has started construction on a 63 story office building in Chaoyang, a key commercial distr

The brand rankings of Korea’s Hyundai Motor and its sister Kia Motors slipped compared to those a year earlier in the latest automakers assessment released by Consumer Reports magazine on February 25 (local time). The US magazine said Hyundai placed 16th among the 23 high-volume car brands by gettin

SEOUL, Feb. 26 (Yonhap) – The South Korean government signed a memorandum of understanding with US multinational conglomerate General Electric (GE) for increased cooperation in the heavy industry sector and with small-sized companies, the industry ministry said Wednesday.Under the deal signed with t

Incheon City and DaeA T&C are having talks with Beijing Tingyuan Xingtai Investment Holdings Corporation for a one trillion won (US$939 million) investment in Incheon Robot Land. The construction of the Robot Land started in September last year in the 767,286 m2-wide site in and around 440-1, Woncha

Korea’s e-commerce trade recorded an all-time high last year, but the growth rate slowed from a year earlier. Statistics Korea said on Feb. 25 that online sales totaled around 1.2041 quadrillion won (US$1.12 trillion) in 2013, up 5 percent from the 1.1468 quadrillion won in the previous year. The am

Hyundai Engineering & Construction’s oil refining plant reconstruction project in Venezuela, which was won from Petróleos de Venezuela two years ago, has been halted due to the non-payment of construction costs. With the completion of the US$2.995 billion plant expected to be delayed by a year or so

Customers of IBM Korea fell into confusion due to Lenovo’s decision to take over the x86 server business of IBM. No follow-up measures concerning product maintenance has come out yet.According to industry sources, Lenovo Korea is planning to run the x86 server business from September this year. It d

Creditors are reportedly considering selling Dongbu HiTek to overseas companies, as large local firms have showed lukewarm responses to the acquisition, contrary to their expectations. Their strategy is to minimize the possibility of a failure in the future sales deal by preventing controversy surro