Daewoo Group

Abstract

Daewoo is the third largest South Korean chaebols with diverse activities, including trading (more than 3000 different products in over 165 countries), construction, shipbuilding, machinery, automobiles, financial services, hotels, electronics, and telecommunications. Nevertheless, Daewoo finds itself in bad trouble on a number of counts, following the economic meltdown of 1997. The situation is thus: It's debt level including foreign currency debt is high; it faces over-capacity, recession, and tough competition in some of its key businesses; the exchange rate of the Korean won has collapsed, and Korea's international credit rating has fallen down to speculative grade. An IMF induced austerity programme has led to high interest rates and falling demand, and many Korean banks are themselves in perilous state and in no position to expand their lending. Above all, the chaebols are under intense political pressure for the economic crisis that has engulfed Korea. What should Daewoo do?