Posco interested in DSME

South Korea?s steel manufacturer, Posco, the world’s fourth-biggest steelmaker, said it’s interested in acquiring Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME). “We are looking with interest on a takeover but nothing has been considered,” Posco said in a statement today, without elaborating.

State-owned Korea Development Bank and Korea Asset Management Corp., majority shareholders of DSME, have said that they plan to find a buyer for their stakes in the shipbuilder. They may raise as much as $3 billion if they sell their entire holdings, based on the shipyard’s closing share price of 29,950 won yesterday. The two companies became Daewoo’s major shareholders when creditors swapped their debt for equity in December 2000. Korea Development Bank, which owns 31.3% of DSME at the end of March, said it doesn’t have a sale plan at the moment for Daewoo Shipbuilding. Korea Asset Management owns 19.1%.

The state-owned Korea Development Bank’s Deputy Governor Kim Jong Bae on June 18 said a proposal concerning its stake in the shipbuilder from a consulting company will be available at the end of September or October. “We are consulting on the sale method, the shipbuilder’s ideal ownership structure and the effects of Korea Development Bank keeping its stake,” Kim said.

A takeover by Posco, the biggest supplier of steel plates to South Korea’s shipyards, will ensure a market for its products amid a glut of exports from China, which produces a third of the world’s steel. Posco recently posted a profit decline for a third straight quarter as iron ore costs surged and competition from China drove down metal prices.