Shinsegae

Shinsegae Inc. (Korean: 신세계; Hanja: 新世界; lit. 'new world', KRX: 004170) is a South Korean department store franchise, along with several other businesses, headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. The firm is an affiliate of Shinsegae Group, South Korea's leading retail chaebol, and one of the big three department store firms in Korea, along with Lotte and Hyundai Department Store. Its flagship store in Centum City, Busan, is the world's largest department store at 3,163,000 square feet (293,900 m2), surpassing Macy's flagship Herald Square in New York City in 2009. Shinsegae was the first credit card company in South Korea. They issued their own charge card from 1967 to 2000. In 2000, Shinsegae sold their credit card division to KorAm Bank, which was later acquired by Citibank Korea. Shinsegae was originally part of the Samsung Group, from which it separated in the 1990s along with CJ Group (Food/Chemicals/Entertainment), Saehan Group (Electronic Media/Apparel/Textiles), and the Hansol Group (Paper/Telecom). Chairwoman Lee Myung-hee is the fifth daughter of Samsung founder Lee Byung-chul and the aunt of Lee Jae-yong, the executive chairman of Samsung Electronics. The group owns the brands Shinsegae and E-Mart, and is in direct competition with Lotte Shopping and Hyundai Department Store Group.