 |
From left: Ryu Jung-hoon, CEO of Doosan Robotics, Park Sang-hyun, CEO of Doosan Enerbility, and Scott Park, CEO of Doosan Bobcat, answer questions during a press conference held at the Plaza Hotel in Seoul on Monday. (Doosan Group) |
Doosan Group announced Monday a revised business realignment plan to go ahead with its earlier bid to incorporate Doosan Bobcat into Doosan Robotics as a subsidiary as the conglomerate looks to create better synergy between its affiliates to expand businesses.
The two boards of Doosan Enerbility, the parent company of Doosan Bobcat with a 46 percent stake in Doosan Bobcat, and Doosan Robotics approved the plan to spin off a new company that will own Doosan Bobcat’s shares from Doosan Enerbility and integrate it under Doosan Robotics as a subsidiary.
Under the revised spinoff-and-merger plan, a stakeholder that holds 100 shares in Doosan Enerbility would receive 88.5 shares of Doosan Enerbility and 4.33 shares of Doosan Bobcat, which are expected to return more to the investors from the previous proposals of 75.3 shares in the former and 3.15 shares in the latter.
“We changed the spinoff-and-merger ratio so that our shareholders would receive the most amount of stocks. … The owners of Doosan Enerbility shares will be able to hold both stocks of Doosan Enerbility and Doosan Bobcat,” said Park Sang-hyun, CEO of Doosan Enerbility, in a press conference held at the Plaza Hotel in central Seoul.
“Once we secure an investment capability of over 1 trillion won ($727 million) by removing non-business assets, we will take the lead in the market by immediately investing in the sectors that are seeing increasing demand such as large nuclear power plants, (small modular reactors) and gas, hydrogen turbines.”
If the restructuring goes through, the conglomerate explained that without the subsidiary under it, Doosan Enterbility would not be responsible for Doosan Bobcat's 700-billion-won loan that is bearing due.
The Doosan Enerbility CEO highlighted that the company expects to garner over 15 percent from return-on-investment by committing additional investment secured from the restructuring, adding that it is projected to log an extra 200 billion won in annual operating profit starting in 2028.
Ryu Jung-hoon, CEO of Doosan Robotics, and Scott Park, CEO of Doosan Bobcat, also underscored the positive impacts of the spinoff-and-merger plan at the press conference.
“If (Doosan Robotics) can take in Doosan Bobcat, which has set up 17 manufacturing sites and 1,500 business networks across the world, as its subsidiary, our presence will be expanded in leading markets such as North America and Europe that account for 70 percent of our sales,” said Ryu.
The CEO of Doosan Bobcat stressed that the company will attempt to take the lead in the autonomous, uncrewed market by combining its hardware manufacturing capabilities with Doosan Robotics’ motion automation software technologies and solution development abilities.
Doosan’s latest business realignment attempt came after the heavy machinery-to-energy conglomerate faced backlash from shareholders and financial authorities and eventually decided to stop pushing for the restructuring plan in August this year, a little over a month after the conglomerate announced its original plan.
The question remains whether the revised realignment plan will satisfy the shareholders and gain approval from the Financial Supervisory Service.
“Doosan Bobcat’s (annual) operating profit is over 1 trillion won while Doosan Enerbility is logging operating losses. Isn’t this a theft?” an online comment read in the Doosan Robotics’ stock discussion board on Naver Pay Securities.
Doosan Bobcat reported 1.39 trillion won in operating profit last year while Doosan Robotics logged 19.2 billion won in operating loss during the same period.
The shares of Doosan Robotics jumped on the back of the conglomerate’s new restructuring plan, closing at 71,600 won per share, up 9.82 percent from Friday. Unlike the surge in Doosan Robotics’ stock value, the shares of Doosan Bobcat and Doosan Enerbility finished the day at 43,550 won and 20,650 won, up 1.28 percent and 0.98 percent, respectively.
