Hanwha scion draws attention amid envisioned Daewoo E&C sale

Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn’s youngest son, Kim Dong-seon, who is in charge of global strategies at affiliate Hanwha Energy, has come under the spotlight recently for his close relationship with potential buyers of Daewoo Engineering & Construction (Daewoo E&C).

After the builder’s owner, KDB Investment, made an apparent attempt to encourage the sale, promoting Daewoo E&C Chief Financial Officer Chung Hang-ki to the position of president last month, tasking him with the deal, local real estate developer, DS Networks, and domestic private equity firm (PEF), SkyLake Equity Partners, were said to have formed a consortium with foreign infrastructure investor, IPM, to take part in the bid.

The Hanwha scion is on the list

of directors at DS Networks’ affiliate, DS D&D, according to a certified copy of its corporate registration, although Hanwha has no relationship with DS Networks and DS D&D in terms of its shareholder structure.

The son had also worked for six months last year at SkyLake, which was founded by former Minister of Information and Communication Chin Dae-je, who is known to be a close friend of the Hanwha chairman, as both of them were born in 1952 and graduated from Kyunggi High School in Seoul.

When SkyLake was launched in 2006, the Hanwha chief was one of Chin’s acquaintances, and they each invested about 1 billion won ($888,000) into the PEF. In 2015, Hanwha also acquired plant automation company SIT from SkyLake for 130 billion won.

Such factors have prompted market observers to regard the DS Networks-led consortium’s pursuit of Daewoo E&C as part of the Hanwha chairman’s attempts to hand over the group’s construction business to his youngest son. Some of them expect the conglomerate to finance the consortium seeking to acquire Daewoo E&C.

Before Hanwha scion temporarily left the company in 2017, he had worked for Hanwha Engineering & Construction. After his return to the group last December, he is reportedly building experience in the real estate development business at Hanwha Energy handling smart city projects.

However, the DS Networks-led consortium’s possible acquisition of Daewoo E&C is facing a severe backlash from the builders’ union at this moment. The Daewoo E&C union issued a statement April 27 to protest the promotion of the CFO, threatening to go on strike if he tries to sell the company to a PEF.