South Korea“s Orion Electric Co., a unit of ailing Daewoo Group, said recently that it plans to sign a final agreement early this month to sell Hankuk Electric Glass to Asahi Glass Co. (J.AHG) of Jap…
South Korea“s Orion Electric Co., a unit of ailing Daewoo Group, said recently that it plans to sign a final agreement early this month to sell Hankuk Electric Glass to Asahi Glass Co. (J.AHG) of Japan. Orion Electric holds 46% of Hankuk Electric Glass, and Daewoo Electronics Co., another Daewoo Group unit, owns another 5% of Hankuk Electric Glass, which is one of the few profitable units of the ailing Daewoo Group. “Daewoo Group will sell 51% of Hankuk to the Japanese company in a final agreement,” an official at Orion Electric said. “The Japanese company had planned to do a second due-diligence study on Hankuk this month, but says now that it doesn“t need the second one.” Earlier this month, Hankuk Electric Glass said its net profit rose to 28.83 billion Won in the first half, up 45% from 19.84 billion Won a year earlier. Sales were also up, rising to 253.5 billion Won, from 229.4 billion Won in the same period a year ago. In April, Daewoo Group said it planned to sell Hankuk Electric to foreign investors as part of its effort to pay off its debts of around 57 trillion Won. Recently, Korea First Bank, one of Daewoo Group“s key creditors, said the conglomerate and its creditors would need two or three more days to finalize agreement on a new restructuring plan for the group. A draft plan calls for the sale of Daewoo Securities Co., the construction division of Keangnam Enterprise Ltd. and Daewoo Group“s stake in its Seoul Investment Trust unit.