South Korea’s STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co Ltd plans to sell its French unit by the end of this year as the troubled company seeks a court-led debt restructuring program, company spokesman Kong Doo-pyoung said yesterday.
The ailing firm — once the country’s No. 4 shipbuilder — filed for the restructuring in May after struggling for years with mounting losses caused by mismanagement and a slump in global demand.
STX is to submit a revival proposal on Friday, Kong said, adding the it includes a plan to sell STX France to improve the parent firm’s financial conditions.
“It is unfortunate that we have decided to let STX France go... but it was necessary as we were in desperate need for cash,” Kong told reporters.
A local unit of the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP was hired last month to manage the sale, he said, adding that the STX would accept bids next month before selecting a preferred bidder in November.
“Our goal is completing the sales of STX France by the end of this year,” he said, adding several potential buyers including some Asian firms had shown an interest.
The court is expected to decide the fate of the STX in the fourth quarter, according to Seoul’s financial authorities.
STX shipbuilding — part of the STX Group that has businesses from shipping to construction — is seeking to cut hundreds of jobs at home and sell assets as it struggles with debts of 300 billion won (US$274.95 million). Creditor banks since 2013 have provided more than 4 trillion won to help STX repay maturing debts but failed to turn the troubled shipbuilder around.
The company — under creditor banks’ supervision since 2013 — posted a net loss of 300 billion won last year. South Korean shipbuilders including STX and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co Ltd have struggled with mounting losses as global demand slows and competition from Chinese rivals intensified.
The government and creditor banks — including the state-run Korea Development Bank — in recent months have urged intense restructuring efforts including mass job cuts.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last