SsangYong Motor, the South Korean unit of Indian auto giant Mahindra & Mahindra, on Monday called off its merger and acquisition (M&A) talks with Edison Motors, a local electric bus maker, after Edison missed a March 25 deadline to pay for the deal price worth 304.8 billion won (US$249.1mil or RM1.05bil).
Behind the failed deal is SsangYong Motor’s key creditor KDB, which has repeatedly refused to extend its loans to Edison citing a lack of concrete plans for sustainable growth of the carmaker.
KDB chairman Lee Dong-gull in January also criticised the then-planned acquisition of the carmaker, calling it the “worst” form of M&A due to its characteristic as a leveraged buyout.
A leveraged buyout, more widely known as an LBO, is the acquisition of another firm using a significant amount of borrowed money in forms of bonds or loans.
Industry watchers say that it is up to the Yoon administration to decide what is best for SsangYong. The new administration faces a choice of whether to keep a major South Korean carmaker afloat or consider fairness in funding a business.
“While the incoming administration will be unable to leave SsangYong alone with the issue working as a key task, but it will also have to consider the fairness and balance of funding with other businesses,” Lee Hang-goo, a researcher at Korea Automotive Technology Institute said.
“It needs a clear reason to fund the M&A. In the end, what matters is how important the Yoon administration views the issue,” he added.
Another industry source said the KDB has a lot on its plate, including Yoon’s reaffirmation last week to carry out its election pledge of relocating the state-run lender’s headquarters to the southern port city of Busan from Seoul.
“The headquarter relocation is a big issue for them at the moment, but with the recent failure of a merger between Hyundai Heavy Industries Group and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, KDB is expected to receive further flak for two consecutive failures if they refuse to bail out SsangYong,” the source explained.
In January, the European Commission – the European Union’s antitrust regulator – decided to veto the merger between the two South Korean shipbuilders, saying such a move could create a monopoly in the liquefied natural gas carrier market.
KDB, which is the main creditor of the heavily indebted Daewoo Shipbuilding, has expressed strong regret over the European Commission’s choice. — The Korea Herald
