Daewoo E&C, a Pillar of 50 Years of K-Construction Growth... Expanding from Asia and the Middle East to Europe

[K-Construction, New Challenge] Strong Performance Amid Real Estate Slump
Solid Management Results Based on Overseas Competitiveness

Daewoo E&C celebrated its 50th anniversary this year. Starting in 1973 as a small company with 12 employees, Daewoo E&C has grown into a pillar that elevates the status of Korean construction by carrying out over 300 projects in more than 40 countries worldwide, including Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.

Despite going through the 1998 financial crisis and becoming independent from the Daewoo Group in 2000, with major shareholders changing several times, the company continues to enhance its competitiveness based on accumulated construction capabilities and technological expertise. Daewoo E&C's solid management performance amid the domestic real estate market downturn caused by the US-originated high interest rates last year is also thanks to this overseas competitiveness.

Daewoo E&C recorded sales of 8.8696 trillion KRW up to the third quarter of this year, a 23.0% increase compared to 7.2109 trillion KRW in the same period last year, achieving 81.4% of its annual target of 10.9 trillion KRW. Operating profit reached 584.6 billion KRW, up 13.9% from 513.2 billion KRW in the previous year. Net profit also increased by 4.0% to 412.2 billion KRW, and financial stability continuously improved, with the debt ratio showing excellent crisis management capabilities by decreasing from 225% in 2021 to 199% at the end of 2022, and 176% in the third quarter of this year.

While the solid performance of the housing construction sector, one of Daewoo E&C’s core business areas, is important, the sales growth and operating profit improvement in the civil engineering and plant sectors stand out. Up to the third quarter of this year, Daewoo E&C’s new overseas orders amounted to 2.4061 trillion KRW, already achieving 133.7% of the annual target. As of the end of the third quarter, the order backlog stood at 45.5455 trillion KRW, securing 4.4 years’ worth of work relative to annual sales.

A Daewoo E&C official stated, “In the civil engineering and plant sectors, profitability is improving as the sales proportion of highly profitable projects such as the Al Faw New Port in Iraq and Nigeria LNG Train 7 increases,” adding, “Efforts to stabilize cost ratios in the civil engineering and plant sectors have shown tangible results.”

Baek Jeong-wan, President of Daewoo E&C

Daewoo E&C plans to continuously expand its influence in overseas markets. At the 50th anniversary ceremony on the 1st, Baek Jeong-wan, CEO of Daewoo E&C, emphasized, “We will demonstrate the DNA of Daewoo E&C employees who are not afraid of challenges and promote our excellent construction capabilities beyond Korea to various overseas locations,” and added, “We will discover a second growth engine beyond construction and create a new dimension of Daewoo E&C over the next 50 years.”

In addition to its existing strengths in Nigeria, Iraq, Vietnam, and Libya, Daewoo E&C is also pioneering new markets. Recently, it has been participating as the lead construction contractor of Team Korea for nuclear power plant orders in the Czech Republic and Poland, making its entry into the European market more visible.

Song Yu-rim, a researcher at Hanwha Investment & Securities, said, “Despite the declining trend in housing supply volume, the expansion of overseas orders and overseas development projects based on localized competitiveness are factors that effectively sustain expectations for Daewoo E&C’s growth potential.”

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