Posco not interested in Daewoo Shipbuilding: CEO

POSCO, South Korea's leading steelmaker, is not interested in buying Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., its chief said Monday. In January this year, state-run Korea Development Bank terminated the sale of a 50.4 per cent stake in the world's third-largest shipyard to Hanwha Group, rejecting the group's demand to revise the terms of sale.
POSCO joined the race for the acquisition of the shipbuilder by forming a consortium with GS Group, an energy and construction conglomerate, to make a joint bid for the controlling stake, but the group backed out at the eleventh hour, rendering the steel giant ineligible.
"We have not reviewed the possibility of the acquisition," POSCO CEO Chung Joon-yang told reporters.
Daewoo Shipbuilding was placed under a debt workout program in August 1999 after its parent Daewoo Group collapsed under heavy debts.
POSCO, instead, is seeking to bid for energy developer Daewoo International Corp.