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State-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) (KSE:42660) and Korea Asset Management Corp. have been seeking to sell their 50.4-percent stake in the shipbuilder, but its sales process has been stalled because of protests by the union, which has blocked bank officials' entry into their office for due diligence since early June.
"We will stop protests over KDB's due diligence (on our company)... However, we will take action again unless our demands are met," a labor union official said.
The union is demanding the stake be sold in blocks and that workers be consulted before a buyer is chosen.
The sale was also delayed after KDB decided in May to handle the sale on its own. It scrapped an April decision that had named Goldman Sachs Group as co-sales arranger.
Last week, KDB CEO Min Euoo-sung said the sale of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering will be completed by the end of the year.
Korea Development Bank is selling the shipyard as it prepares for its own privatization. The government plans to start reducing its 100 per cent stake in the bank next year and to fully privatize it by 2012.
Some South Korean conglomerates -- such as Doosan Group, GS Group and Hanwha Group -- have said they are interested in taking over the shipyard. POSCO, the world's fourth-largest steelmaker, is also seeking to buy the shipbuilder.
KDB also owns stakes in Hynix Semiconductor Inc. and Hyundai Engineering Co., the country's number three builder, both of which were bailed out in the wake of a financial meltdown that hit the country in late 1997.
Shares of Daewoo Shipbuilding were trading at 42,100 won (US$41.8) on the Seoul bourse as of 10:28 a.m., down 4 per cent.
(Yonhap)
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