Choi Jung-woo Meets Global Giants Like BlackRock in Singapore to Present POSCO Vision

BlackRock and Singapore Investment Corporation Meeting
Management Performance and Future Plans Announced
"Shareholder-Friendly Policies and Enhanced Communication"

Choi Jung-woo, Chairman of POSCO Group. Photo by POSCO Group

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seoyoon] Choi Jung-woo, Chairman of POSCO Group, personally met with the largest overseas investors of POSCO Holdings to explain the management performance and future plans.

According to POSCO Group on the 21st, Chairman Choi visited Singapore on the 19th and met sequentially with investment heads of global asset management firm BlackRock and the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) to explain and discuss POSCO Holdings' ▲improvements in management and financial soundness ▲progress and plans for future growth businesses ▲transparency of corporate governance ▲shareholder return policies.

Chairman Choi said, “Over the past four years, POSCO Group has focused on improving profitability and competitiveness in core businesses while continuously restructuring non-core businesses to enhance financial soundness.”

He added, “As a result, major companies including POSCO, POSCO International, and POSCO Chemical have achieved record-high sales and profits, and international credit rating agencies have upgraded POSCO Holdings' credit rating for the first time in 10 years.”

Chairman Choi continued, “We are continuously investing in future new businesses to transform our business identity into a leading eco-friendly future materials company,” emphasizing, “Based on excellent business performance and growth vision, we will strengthen shareholder-friendly policies and communication to better meet shareholders' trust and expectations.”

At the investor meeting, POSCO Holdings explained that the steel sector, which plays a central role in the group’s business, plans to expand sales of high value-added products such as steel sheets dedicated to future vehicles and enhance eco-friendly production technology capabilities to build a more competitive business system.

Additionally, centered on POSCO Holdings, the company is focusing more on the secondary battery materials business by vertically integrating raw materials and materials businesses such as lithium, nickel, and recycling, and is building the world's first full value chain for secondary battery materials, with visible results emerging.

POSCO Holdings expects that the production facilities for the secondary battery materials business, which have been under development, will be sequentially completed and operational, establishing a new source of revenue. By the end of this year, a secondary battery recycling plant will be completed, followed by an ore lithium plant in 2023 and a brine lithium plant in 2024, all scheduled to start operations.

Last month, POSCO Holdings held a value day for the secondary battery materials business and announced its goal to produce 300,000 tons of lithium, 220,000 tons of nickel, 610,000 tons of cathode materials, and 320,000 tons of anode materials by 2030, aiming for sales of 41 trillion KRW in the secondary battery materials sector alone.

POSCO Holdings also explained its shareholder return measures. In 2020, it introduced a performance-linked dividend policy, significantly increasing dividends from 8,000 to 10,000 KRW per share to 17,000 KRW last year, and already paid 8,000 KRW in dividends in the first half of this year. Furthermore, on the 12th, the board of directors decided to cancel approximately 2.61 million shares (worth about 672.2 billion KRW), marking the first treasury stock cancellation in 18 years since 2004.

This year, POSCO Holdings implemented shareholder returns totaling about 1.28 trillion KRW in the first half alone, including 672.2 billion KRW in treasury stock cancellation and 606.8 billion KRW in total dividends, and plans to establish a new medium-term shareholder return policy for the three years from 2023 to 2025 early next year.

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