Hyundai Heavy Industries Bids to Acquire Doosan Infracore
Hyundai Heavy Industries Holding Co. has submitted a bid to acquire a 36-percent ownership stake in Doosan Infracore, valued at about $850 million, according to Korean media reports. A Seoul-based investment banking firm Glenwood Private Equity has also submitted a bid. Hyundai is reported to be the strongest candidate for Doosan Infracore, the heavy construction equipment segment of the Doosan Group. Hyundai formed a consortium with KDP Investment, a unit of Korea Development Bank. Also participating in the bid was MBK Partners, a private equity firm that acquired Doosan Infracore’s machine tools business in 2016.
Doosan Group is offering the 36-percent stake in Infracore as part of restructuring Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co. because of its large debts. Doosan has about $3.6 billion in debts due before the end of this year, according to the reports.
A financial analyst at Daishin Securities said the disposal of Doosan Infracore would finalize Doosan Group’s restructuring measures.
According to Korean press reports, Doosan Heavy hopes that once free of debt it will transition into a green business through its gas turbine technology with the help of Doosan Fuel Cell’s hydrogen fuel cell business.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.