Posco completes takeover of Daewoo International

Posco completes takeover of Daewoo International. Posco, Korea’s leading steelmaker, concluded its purchase of Daewoo International Corp., the nation’s leading trading company, from the Korea Asset Management Corp. and other creditors in a 3.37 trillion won ($2.8 billion) deal. Posco will acquire a 68 percent stake in the trading company at a price lower then its initial offer of 3.46 trillion won. Posco was selected as the preferred bidder for Daewoo International, which it believes will help it to acquire raw materials due to Daewoo’s overseas energy business and global distribution network. Daewoo International has been developing gas fields off the coast of Myanmar and plans to explore a nickel mine in Madagascar. The company has been exploring nickel, copper and uranium mines in Australia and Bolivia. Posco said it wants to expand Daewoo International, which has more than 100 overseas units, by raising the trading firm’s annual sales to 20 trillion won by 2018, up from 2009 sales of 11 trillion won. Daewoo emerged from its debt workout in 2003 and it was put up for sale last September. Chung Joon-yang, Posco chief executive, said the company has no plans to acquire Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Korea’s No. 2 shipbuilder. In 2008, Posco formed a consortium with GS Group, an energy and construction conglomerate, to jointly bid for a controlling stake in the shipbuilder, but the bid was then abandoned. Chung said that nothing has been decided yet on the sale of a 24 percent stake in Kyobo Life Insurance Co. held by Daewoo International. By Jung Seung-hyun