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The competition to take over Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering grew more fierce on Thursday with an announcement by Hanwha Group that it will join the bid. Four other conglomerates have already expressed their intentions to bid for the shipbuilder, namely Hyundai Heavy Industries, POSCO, Doosan Group and GS.
With Hanwha participating in the bid, the takeover price of Daewoo Shipbuilding will likely reach W7 trillion (US$1=992), more than double its value of W3.5 trillion based on its current stock price, industry insiders predict.
Hanwha Group has operations in the energy business with its subsidiaries Hanwha Corp. and Hanwha Chemical Corp. The conglomerate has also been exploring energy resources in Canada and Southeast Asia. Thus the group hopes to achieve synergy effects by taking over Daewoo Shipbuilding, which earns 76 percent of its sales on energy-related ships such as oil tankers.
The Korea Development Bank, the largest shareholder in the shipbuilder, with a 31.3 percent stake, welcomed Hanwha's participation. "We welcome any enterprise to the bid, as long as it has enough funds and sufficient management ability. We hope many potential buyers will participate so that Daewoo Shipbuilding can be sold at a good price," a KDB official said,
A decision on the preferred bidder is expected to come around late August.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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