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| A Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries-built LNG ship / Courtesy of KSOE |
Kurly also retracts initial public offering
By Kim Hyun-bin
Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (KSOE) decided not to take Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries public due to a rise in economic uncertainties that has seen stock prices plummet, according to industry officials, Wednesday.
According to DART, a repository of Korea corporate filings, KSOE will purchase 4,647,201 shares of Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries held by private equity fund IMM PE.
The purchase of shares follows the signing of an agreement in July 2017 to terminate the equity investment contract with Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries between KSOE and IMM PE. IMM PE acquired shares of Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries under the condition that the latter, a subsidiary of KSOE, go public.
According to this agreement, KSOE plans to purchase Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries shares held by IMM PE at 88,157 won ($69.2) per share in January. The acquisition amount is 409.7 billion won, of which KSOE planned to pay 266.7 billion won in cash and the remaining in shares of Hyundai Heavy Industries worth 143 billion won.
Many believe KSOE felt burdened by minority shareholders' fierce opposition to the listing, which could have impacted the withdrawal. Shareholders of KSOE established a non-profit organization in October of last year and started collecting shares. So far, 1,168,984 shares have been collected, and their stake in the company stands at 1.65 percent.
"Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries succeeded in turning a profit in the third quarter, and expectations for performance improvement are high," an official from KSOE said. "Nevertheless, in the current stagnant stock market, it would be difficult to properly evaluate the value of Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries even if pursued listing, so we decided to terminate the contract under an agreement between the two companies."
KSOE stock price rose 7.05 percent recording 74,400 per share at market close, Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Kurly, which operates the early morning delivery platform Market Kurly, postponed its listing on the Korea Exchange, due to a decline in investor sentiment caused by deteriorating global economic conditions, the company announced, Wednesday.
"We plan to re-promote it at the optimal time to fully evaluate the company's value in the future," the company said.
Kurly passed the preliminary screening for listing in August last year, raising expectations in the market to become the first listed e-commerce company in Korea. However, the possibility of delisting came to the fore as the company could not decide on the timing of filing a securities report.
Previously, in the IPO market, it was predicted that Kurly's deficit would increase each year, which would become a barrier to listing the firm. Kurly's deficit increased every year from 33.7 billion won in 2018 to 101.3 billion won in 2019 and 116.3 billion won in 2020, and recorded 217.7 billion won in deficit in 2021.
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