"We Will Sell Everything Including Thermal Power Plant Assets"...Tongyang Group

 

The group had maintained that it would keep at least a 51-percent stake even if it was forced to sell shares in the company. But now it has shifted its stance toward selling everything if need be.

 

The value of the 100-percent stake of Tongyang Power is estimated at 1 trillion won, which can cover all the commercial paper and corporate bonds coming due until November. A group official said, "Survival of the group comes first over everything else. We will give up anything to save the group."

 

Earlier in February this year, Tongyang Group had won a bidding to take on a thermal power plant business in Samcheok. At the time, the group could outbid other strong contenders such as Samsung C&T, Dongbu Group, and STX because it offered an environmentally friendly proposal that it would make use of an abandoned mine formerly used by Tongyang Cement. Once the 2,000-megawatt power plant is up and running by 2019, the group expects that it could earn an operating profit of 300 billion won a year on 1.5-trillion-won sales revenue.