S. Korea's SeAH Besteel to pursue global M&A

South Korea’s steel conglomerate SeAH Group is gearing up to expand its steel business through overseas mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and seeking new areas of business in the steel industry.

SeAH Group that owns SeAH Besteel, SeAh Steel, and SeAH Special Steel Co. is tapping various M&A opportunities to add overseas production facility, said chief executive officer of SeAH Besteel Lee Tae-sung who is also serving as a senior managing director of the group holding company SeAH Holdings.

Lee revealed the plan after he was reelected as a director of SeAH Holdings during its shareholders meeting held last week. Lee who is in his late 30s joined the management after his father and the late SeAH Group Chairman Lee Woon-hyung abruptly died of heart failure in March 2013 during an overseas business trip.

Lee also pictured a rosy outlook for the group’s steel making affiliates including SeAH Besteel this year and expected that their sales and profits will grow backed by new businesses in the steel making industry. SeAH Besteel, the major rival of the nation’s leading steelmaker Hyundai Steel Co., registered 143.5 billion won in operating profit last year, down 36 percent from a year earlier. Its sales were up 0.2 percent on year to 2.53 trillion won.

Established in 1960 by its late founder Lee Jong-duk in Busan, SeAH is the No.1 player in domestic specialty steel market.

Lee also said he has been selling his shares of SeAh Steel Corp. to use the proceeds in paying tax worth total 180 billion won ($161 million) on shares of the country’s largest steel pipe producer he inherited.

[ⓒ Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]