VENTURE CAPITAL POST

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.

Global smartphone leader Samsung Electronics Co Ltd on Thursday confirmed expectations for its first annual profit decline since 2011, although a pickup in the fourth quarter hinted that earnings may have stabilized in the short term.

South Korea's LG Display Co Ltd plans to increase production capacity of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels for TVs, seeking growth in a new technology field that its rivals have dismissed as still too expensive to succeed.

South Korean authorities have found evidence that a low-risk computer "worm" had been removed from devices connected to some nuclear plant control systems, but no harmful virus was found in reactor controls threatened by a hacker.

When Xi Jinping wanted to deliver a political message to Hong Kong as protesters demanding free elections were threatening to take to the streets, he summoned the tycoons who dominate the city’s economy.

Asian markets were set for a cautious close to 2014 on Wednesday as worries about Greece's future in the euro zone served as an excuse to take profits on popular trades.

Excelerate Energy's Texan liquefied natural gas terminal plan has become the first victim of an oil price slump threatening the economics of U.S. LNG export projects.