Next Week's Bid Deadline for Ssangyong Motor... Ultimately, 'Money and Business Capability' Are Key

SM Group·Edison Motors Consortium Emerges as Leading Candidate

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] As the main bidding for Ssangyong Motor, which is currently undergoing the sale process, is set to close next week on the 15th, the acquisition fund and business capability are expected to be key factors. For this reason, SM Group and the Edison Motors consortium are being mentioned as strong candidates.

According to industry sources on the 11th, EY Han Young Accounting Corporation, the main sales agent for Ssangyong Motor, plans to close the submission of acquisition proposals for the main bidding on the 15th of this month.

Once the main bidding closes, the final acquisition candidate will be selected by evaluating the acquisition price, willingness to maintain employment, business normalization, and operational plans of the candidates. The acquisition proposal also includes items to verify whether the candidate can actually secure the funds they propose.

Among the 11 domestic and foreign companies that previously submitted letters of intent, seven completed preliminary due diligence last month. Specifically, these include SM Group, domestic electric bus specialist Edison Motors, electric scooter company K-Pop Motors, Cardinal One Motors (a new corporation of HAAH Automotive), electric vehicle and battery manufacturers LBN Tech and INDI EV, and hydrogen energy specialist Hyzen Solution. It is expected that five companies, which have completed advisor selection, will participate in the main bidding this month.

Industry and creditors point out that acquiring and operating Ssangyong Motor will require an injection of 800 billion to 1 trillion KRW, including public bonds, making fund mobilization a prerequisite.

However, rather than selling the company to the highest bidder unconditionally, the funding plan and business direction will be carefully reviewed to prevent any 'eat-and-run' controversies in advance.

Some in the industry suspect that some companies participating in the preliminary bidding are small in scale and lack clear funding plans, raising concerns that they might be bidding for Ssangyong Motor with the aim of developing the Ssangyong Motor site to be sold.

In particular, Ssangyong Motor plans to establish electric vehicle manufacturing facilities on the relocated factory site and start full-scale electric vehicle production, so they intend to select a company with a clear vision for electric vehicles going forward.

Accordingly, it is expected that the final acquisition candidate will come from either SM Group or the Edison Motors consortium, both of which have sufficient financial power and concrete business operation plans.

SM Group is the 38th largest business group in the Korean economy with assets worth 10.45 trillion KRW. It holds around 1 trillion KRW in cash assets alone, and is evaluated as capable of independently raising the acquisition funds. SM Group believes that acquiring Ssangyong Motor will create synergies with its automotive parts affiliates.

The Edison Motors consortium, which includes major domestic private equity funds such as Keystone Private Equity (PE) and KCGI as financial investors (FI), is also considered a strong acquisition candidate. Edison Motors is expected to accelerate Ssangyong Motor’s electric vehicle development and increase sales by leveraging its expertise in electric bus manufacturing.

Meanwhile, there are also views that Hyzen Solution, which includes Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas involved in power plants and resources, may also have sufficient financial power.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.