South Korea’s midsized shipyard STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co. under new ownership has rebranded itself as K Shipbuilding to celebrate its new start after graduating from eight-year-long creditor management.
Creditors completed the sale of the shipbuilder to a consortium of a local private equity fund KH Investment and United Asset Management Company (UAMCO) at 250 billion won ($217.2 million).
State lender Korea Development Bank (KDB), its main creditor, officially notifies the termination of creditor management on Tuesday and the company will hold a ceremony to celebrate the rebranding on Wednesday.
Founded in 1976, the company was global No. 4 in terms of orders and backlog with $4 billion exports at its heyday in early 2000s.
But the Wall Street meltdown in 2008 and industry-wide slump triggered the fall of the company. It entered into a creditor-led workout program in 2013 due to snowballing losses from dearth of new orders and investment failures. The situation turned from bad to worse, leading to delisting of the company on capital impairment and court receivership in 2016 and 2017.
After going through painstaking restructuring including massive layoffs and asset sales, it was finally sold to a new owner, the UAMCO-KHI consortium last year.
Changwon City in South Gyeongsang Province where the shipyard is based will celebrate the rebirth of the company until August 6 by designating the week as K Shipbuilding Week.
Source: Pulse