Korea Development Bank, a key creditor of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., is expected to provide a short-term loan to the struggling shipbuilder early next month, according to KDB and the Financial Services Commission on Sunday.
The planned loan worth between 200 billion won ($178.6 million) and 300 billion won is likely to help Daewoo Shipbuilding address its liquidity shortage and repay maturing debts.
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(Yonhap) |
Daewoo Shipbuilding has been under pressure to repay commercial papers worth 400 billion won by Sept. 9.
The decision by KDB to offer a loan to Daewoo Shipbuilding came after the shipbuilder announced that it will deliver two drill ships worth 1 trillion won to Angola's oil company Sonangol late next month.
The delivery of the two drill ships is expected to stave off a liquidity crisis at DSME.
"If the delivery of the drilling ships to Sonangol was completed, Daewoo Shipbuilding could buy much-needed time for normalization after escaping from critical liquidity issues," said an official at the financial industry.
Hit by a global economic slowdown and a prolonged slump in oil prices, South Korean shipbuilders, including Daewoo Shipbuilding, have been struggling with mounting losses and falling orders.
Daewoo Shipbuilding reported a net loss of 1.22 trillion won for the second quarter of this year, compared with a profit of 31.4 billion won in the previous quarter. (Yonhap)