South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) is poised to be renamed Hanwha Ocean and get a new management team.
The changes are scheduled for a vote at a sharehoder’s meeting later in May after Hanwha Group’s buyout of the shipbuilder was green-lighted by South Korean regulators late last week.
According to local media reports, the planned name and management changes were approved at a DSME board meeting on Monday.
The move is set to end a turbulent 23 years for the Korean shipbuilder — the world’s fourth largest — which has seen it scoring many firsts but also battling debt since it was spun off from its Daewoo Group parent in 2000.
Aside from the shipbuilder’s new name, the May shareholder meeting is expected to confirm Hanwha support division vice president Hyek-woong Kwon as DSME’s new chief executive.
Kwon has been heading up the acquisition team for the shipbuilder since September 2022, according to the local reports.
Hanwha Corp vice chairman Dong-kwan Kim — the eldest son of Hanwha chairman Seung-youn Kim —was named as a non-executive director.
In total nine new directors, three of which will be internal officials, one non-executive director and five external directors are due to be appointed.
One of the recommended external directors is listed as George P Bush, a partner in US law firm Michael Best & Friedrich and a nephew of former US president George W Bush.
On 4 May Korea’s Fair Trade Commission gave its conditional approval for energy and defence contractor Hanwha Group’s buyout of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering providing “corrective measures” were taken to prevent potential anti-competition practices relating to Hanwha’s supply of military equipment.
Hanwha has already received the green light for the takeover from the European Union and six other countries — Japan, China, Singapore, Vietnam, Turkey and the UK.
The Korean conglomerate — now the country’s seventh largest — said it and its affiliates will take part in a KRW 2trn ($1.5bn) rights offering in May to acquire its planned 49.3% stake in DSME and will assume control of the shipbuilder.
Following this, Korea Development Bank’s 55.7% stake in DSME is set to be cut to 28.2%.
- 1973: Okpo shipyard built by Korea Shipbuilding & Engineering Corp
- 1978: Company becomes Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering
- 1991: Daewoo Shipbuilding posts its first-ever profit
- 1999: Enters into workout programme after Asian crisis, Korea Development Bank (KDB) emerges as major shareholder.
- 2000: Daewoo Shipbuilding spun off from Daewoo Group
- 2001: Workout programme completed
- 2002: European Commission makes complaint to World Trade Organization (WTO) over corporate restructuring subsidies
- 2008: Hanwha Group bids for the company as KDB looks for buyer
- 2020: Japan complains to WTO over subsidies after second restructuring
- 2021: Proposed merger with Hyundai Heavy Industries blocked by European Union
- 2022: Strike disrupts production for more than 50 days
- 2022: Second Hanwha $1.4bn bid accepted
- 2023: South Korea's Fair Trade Commission approves Hanwha's acquisition of DSME
