VENTURE CAPITAL POST

General Motors Co (GM) (GM.N) on Thursday said its labor costs have risen nearly 50 percent over the past five years in South Korea, where it makes nearly one-fifth of its global output, but that it does not plan to shut any of its four plants there.

China is discussing ways in which a new regional lender being pushed by Beijing can cooperate with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said on Sunday, as he sought to fend off concerns that the two banks would become rivals.

A possible deal over Iran's nuclear program that would phase out economic sanctions against Tehran is unlikely to flood world markets with more oil any time soon, despite Iran's declared intention to claw back market share lost because of the curbs.

Australia expects to make a decision within weeks on whether it will seek to join the China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Saturday.

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Thursday it will start buying or selling the Chinese yuan for the won from the Seoul market on March 16.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd has raised its production target for the new flagship Galaxy smartphones following positive market reception, the Electronic Times newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Mobile messaging apps Line and Kakao Talk are busy trying to conquer overseas markets such as Southeast Asia and India. But they may do well to keep a close eye on their home turf of Japan and South Korea as China's WeChat amasses more users.

China's Anbang Insurance Group has agreed to pay 1.13 trillion won ($998 million) to take a controlling stake in South Korean's eighth-largest life insurer Tong Yang Life Insurance, Tong Yang said on Tuesday.

Craig Uden, who fattens cattle for beef on his Nebraska feedlot, expects to cut his energy costs by as much as a quarter this year because of falling oil prices - a silver lining in an otherwise tough rural economy.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in China grew at its strongest pace in nearly four years in January, surging 29.4 percent from a year earlier to $13.9 billion as investors largely shunned the troubled manufacturing sector and focused on the more resilient services industry.

Japan is considering ending its 14-year-old, $10 billion currency swap agreement with South Korea amid a deterioration in relations between the two countries, a government source told Reuters on Saturday.

For China's shipyards, the oil rig market that was supposed to be a blessing is in danger of becoming a curse. As crude prices slide, oil producers are slashing new project spending.

China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is in talks with the South Korean city of Incheon for a 1 trillion won (about $923 million) joint investment on a new business complex, the Dong-A Ilbo daily reported on Monday.

Plunging oil prices have sparked a big rally in Asian government bond markets as lower fuel costs cut inflation expectations, but the rally could be built on shallow foundations as monetary policymakers remain out of step with tumbling bond yields.

Shares of South Korean consumer electronics maker LG Electronics Inc rose sharply early on Thursday, buoyed by expectations for healthy earnings in 2015 as well as bargain-hunting.