Mainly, HHI's decision comes as the shipbuilding field recovers from a global economic fall, that resulted to job cuts in 2017, a $2.6 billion bailout of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co Ltd.
Hyundai Heavy has issued a letter of intent to KDB to purchase a part of Daewoo, as stated by Yonhap Infomax.
The bank noted in a statement that it signed a MoU with Hyundai that includes liquidity support of 2.5 trillion won ($2.25 billion) for Daewoo. Additionally, the bank owns a 55.7% part of Daewoo.
Also, Daewoo shares experienced an increase of 22% on January 31, whereas HHI's shares decreased by 5% due to concerns on high purchase price.
In the meantime, the potential for reduced competition pushed Samsung Heavy shares up almost 7%.
KDB’s stake reached the 2.16 trillion won ($1.94 billion) worth on January 3 according to analysts.
Based on HHI's aim to buy DSME, the former's workers' union announced that they decided to delay a vote on 2018's wage deal in a protest, as they believe that the purchase could likely threaten their jobs.
However, despite the allegations, Hyundai Heavy, Daewoo, Samsung Heavy and KDB declined to comment.
Concluding, the shipbuilding industry accounts for 7% of both exports and employment in Asia’s fourth-biggest economy.
