South Korean Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chairman Yim Jong-yong affirmed there will be no mergers between shipbuilders in order to hold onto the country’s status as a shipbuilding powerhouse.
Mr. Yim stressed the importance of keeping Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering’s (DSME) status as the top shipbuilder in the world, refuting growing voices over the so-called “big deal,” dissolving the debt-ridden DSME and merging it into Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) and Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI), Korea Times reports.
“Those big 3 companies are all under restructuring and a potential big deal will harm all of them. A precondition for a big deal is all of those companies undergo restructuring thoroughly and stand on their own. However, they are not in such a condition.” , Yim said
DSME has been hit hard amid the government’s corporate restructuring sweep, as the company’s negligence in controlling its finances as well as alleged illegalities came to public light.
However, Yim said DSME’s competitiveness as the world’s top shipyard in terms of order backlog should be maintained. Yim said the FSC came to the assumption that the global shipbuilding industry will recover in 2018, thus it has to keep DSME afloat, not dissolve it or let it go bankrupt.