Tag: South Korea

Anyone want to buy the McDonalds franchises in South Korea?:

McDonald’s is moving to sell its Korean branches as more companies enter the overly-crowded fast food market here, the company said Friday. The U.S. fast food giant first attempted to dispose of its Korean business back in 2016 but failed to do so as potential buyers opted out, due to high sales prices and other reasons.

Mirae Asset Securities has been selected as a sales manager to find the new owner of McDonald’s Korea, which has seen its profitability deteriorate, despite rising revenue, because of rising wages and higher raw materials costs, amid intensifying competition. 

“McDonald’s is looking for a strategic partner in Korea to improve the company’s growth. We are working with an external consulting firm to review various options. We will provide more details on the sell off at the appropriate time,” a McDonald’s Korea official said. 

McDonald’s sales in Korea have actually increased from 724.8 billion won ($570.4 million) in 2019 to 867.8 billion won in 2021. This increase is only counting the revenue created from the restaurants McDonald’s Korea directly managed, and if sales created with franchisees are included, the figure reaches over 1 trillion won. It is the largest sales achieved by the American fast food restaurant chain in Korea. Its operating losses reached 44 billion won in 2019, 48.3 billion won in 2020 and 27.7 billion won in 2021. 

Various factors are attributable to McDonald’s money-losing business in Korea. Higher delivery service fees here during COVID-19 have increased its business expenses, along with soaring costs of labor and raw materials. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This is not surprising considering how this trucker strike continues to drag out which is all linked to high fuel prices:

South Korean steelmaker POSCO said on Sunday will halt some of its plants in the country due to a lack of space to store finished products, which have not been shipped due to a strike by truckers who are demanding higher pay as fuel prices surge.

POSCO follows automaker Hyundai Motor in cutting production lines as the strike by thousands of truckers disrupted cargo transport at the country’s industrial hubs and major ports.

Reuters

You can read more at the link.

The COVID numbers continue to improve in South Korea despite the dropping of most social distancing protocols:

South Korea’s new coronavirus cases fell below 10,000 on Sunday due to fewer tests the previous day as the country works to return to pre-pandemic normalcy.

The country added 9,835 COVID-19 infections, including 48 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 18,163,686, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said.

The daily caseload is down from 12,048 on Saturday.

Daily infections have shown a downward trend after posting an all-time high of over 620,000 in mid-March.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

This is another sign that Korea’s conservative People Power Party continues to be on the rise in the wake of the election of Yoon Suk-yeol:

Leaders of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) on Thursday offered to quit the interim leadership committee en masse following the party’s crushing defeat in this week’s local elections.

Rep. Yoon Ho-jung and Park Ji-hyun, the DP’s co-interim chiefs, announced that all eight members of the party’s emergency leadership committee will step down to take responsibility for the defeat in Wednesday’s local elections.

The PPP won 12 out of 17 key races for big city mayors and provincial governors, including Seoul, while the DP won only five key races — three in its stronghold of the Jeolla provinces, as well as Gyeonggi and Jeju governorships.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but of note in this election is that Lee Jae-myung who ran against President Yoon was elected to a National Assembly seat out of Incheon and former Presidential Candidate who sided with Yoon was elected to a National Assembly seat in Bundang.

Any bets if the argument with the cab driver had to do with not running the meter and charging an exorbitant fee?:

Two Secret Service employees — an agent and an armed physical security specialist — in South Korea to prepare for President Joe Biden’s impending arrival are being sent home after an alleged alcohol-fueled incident that ended with a report being filed with local police, according to two sources briefed on the situation.

The personnel were assigned to help prepare for the presidential visit when they went out for dinner and then stopped at several bars, the sources told ABC News. As the evening progressed, the two Secret Service staffers became apparently intoxicated and the agent wound up in a heated argument with a cab driver, according to the sources.

ABC News

You can read more at the link.

I feel bad for the investors that lost their money, but investing in bitcoin has always had a casino like atmosphere to it. You should not invest money that you cannot afford to lose:

The collapse of Luna is starting to ripple through Korea as investors in the coin and companies associated with it add up their losses and adjust their plans.  

Victims range from retail punters to some of the largest business names in the country, and the damages go from trivial to existential, though the sense is that, so far, the Luna fiasco will not be a Lehman moment and threaten crypto markets or the broader markets in a systemic way.    

“I lost my entire lifesavings in just two days,” one person wrote anonymously on Bitman, a Korean blockchain community, on May 14. “I repeatedly sold Luna at a loss, bought more to lower the average price and sold it at a loss again. After losing more than 100 million won [$78,000] that I struggled to save for years, I can neither eat nor sleep. I loathe myself.”  

Terra coins were algorithmically pegged to other currencies though arbitraged with Luna coins. When faith in the design evaporated in early May, Luna lost most of its value in a matter of days and TerraUSD, which is the Terra that tracks the dollar, dropped to about 10 cents. 

One man, who claims to have lost 2 billion won ($1.6 million) by investing in Luna, was under investigation after showing up at the house of Kwon Do-hyeong, one of the masterminds behind the Terra stablecoin scheme.    
   
“Kwon should officially apologize and announce some sort of plan using any means available, including using his own money,” the man told the local press. “There are some people around me who have actually lost their lives.” 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more about the cryptocurrency losses impacting South Korea at the link.

Sorry, but I have little sympathy for someone who was clearly wearing these pants to be provocative and get attention:

A popular South Korean DJ claimed she was kicked off an American Airlines flight and “harassed” into taking off her sweatpants in public because they were deemed “inappropriate” and “offensive.”

DJ Soda, whose real name is Hwang So-hee, took to Instagram and Twitter to detail how she was “harassed and humiliated” on Monday after boarding an American Airlines flight from New York to Los Angeles.

“I was forced out of the plane and was harassed to take off my pants in front of the flight crews at the gate,” the 36-year-old wrote. Hwang added that she “never had an issue” wearing the pants on her current North American music tour.

During the incident, Hwang had been wearing black sweatpants with the words “FUCK,” “FUCK YOU,” and “FUCKIN,'” printed all over, which she said were sponsored by the clothing brand Ripndip.

Yahoo News

You can read more at the link.