STX may join POSCO bid

STX Group said that it is ready to chip in 300 billion won to join a consortium led by local steel giant POSCO to take over Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME). “We want to participate in the Daewoo Shipbuilding bidding. But we will invest a maximum of 300 billion won to grab some managerial rights for the

world’s third-biggest shipyard,” Lee Jong-chul, the group?s vice chairman said.

Lee’s remarks have been in line with the group’s rather “passive” stance toward the Daewoo shipyard. In July, its senior vice president told the local press that group-scale talks had been under way in jointly acquiring DSME to lessen the financial burden of an acquisition.

POSCO has been seeking shipping and energy-related partners to join forces and boost its chances of winning the bid for DSME. Very recently, Korea’s SK Group, which controls the nation’s largest oil refining company, was mulling over plans to join POSCO in its bid. The Korea Development Bank plans to close preliminary bidding for the purchase of a combined 50.4% in DSME by 9 September.