Hanwha acquires Daewoo Shipbuilding for 2 trillion won Securing land, sea and air defense technology

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Hanwha Group has decided to acquire Daewoo Shipbuilding for KRW 2 trillion.

For 23 years, the company has endured with government support as an ownerless company, but there are still many tasks to be completed before normalization.

By Kim Bum-joo, staff reporter.

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Hanwha Group announced plans to acquire Daewoo Shipbuilding for KRW 2 trillion.

Korea Development Bank, the current largest shareholder, announced today (26th) that it has signed an investment agreement with Hanwha Group.

It issues a new 2 trillion won worth of Daewoo Shipbuilding stock and hand it over to the Hanwha Group. If this happens, Hanwha will secure a 49.3% stake and become the largest shareholder.

Korea Development Bank will remain the second largest shareholder as its stake is reduced from the current 55.7% to 28.2%.

However, in order to avoid controversy over preferential treatment, we plan to sign the contract after conducting an open bidding for three weeks to see if there is a company that offers better conditions.

In 2008, Hanwha Group tried to acquire Daewoo Shipbuilding for 6.3 trillion won, which is more than three times the amount of today's contract, but failed.

The reason why Hanwha decided to acquire Daewoo Shipbuilding is interpreted as it was determined that synergies would be high in business.

From the standpoint of nurturing the defense industry from ground to aerospace, such as the K9 self-propelled artillery, adding Daewoo Shipbuilding's submarine technology will enable it to cover both land, sea, and air.

Aerospace, which leads the defense business, is procuring 1 trillion won, which is half of the acquisition fund, in this context.

In addition, it is expected that the various technologies accumulated while building LNG carriers will be able to be used in the eco-friendly energy business, another major business.

However, until the takeover, there is still a process that must pass the examination by a foreign competition authority.

Also, even after the acquisition, how to resolve the situation in which the three largest domestic shipbuilders have been competing for a long time and stabilizing their management remains as a task.