STX mulls selling off assets to secure financial health

STX Group, the nation’s 14th-largest business group, said Thursday that it is considering selling assets to revive its worsening financial health amid the ongoing slowdown in the shipbuilding industry globally.

“As part of our financial restructuring, we are discussing plans to directly list STX Energy and STX Heavy Industries or to sell off assets through the establishment of financial restructuring covenants with the Korea Development Bank,” the company said in response to an inquiry from the Korea Exchange on the day.

The company, however, made it clear that nothing has yet been decided.

In an earlier announcement on Monday, STX said it had launched a 2.5 trillion won ($2.1 billion) financial restructuring by selling off its well-performing affiliate STX OSV, stakes in its non-listed affiliates and shares in resource development projects.

The company has been working on the establishment of financial restructuring covenants with its major creditor KDB amid a prolonged slowdown in its major business sectors of shipbuilding and marine engineering.

Shares of STX affiliates saw a steep decline on the closing of the Korea Composite Stock Price Index, driven by investors’ concerns about the company’s weakening financial structure.

Shares of STX and STX Offshore & Shipbuilding declined 11.44 percent and 11.76 percent, respectively. STX Metal and STX Pan Ocean also saw an almost 15 percent decline in share prices.

About the drastic drop in share prices, the company hinted at taking legal action against those who spread baseless rumors.

“Following news reports in the morning, many investors saw their share value drop drastically,” the company said in a statement.

“The selloff of STX OSV is carried out normally and in a transparent way. It’s not true that we have already been paid for sale.”

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)