Hyundai Motor may be spun off

Hyundai Group has submitted an application to the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) to spin off Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors, Hyundai Precision and five other companies from the chaebol.

Hyundai officials said that former Hyundai Group honorary chairman Chung Ju-Yung had sold his 6.1% stake in Hyundai Motor, thus satisfying the requirement for the spin-off. Inchon Iron & Steel was not included in the spin-off plan.

The combined sales of the eight companies that will be separated from Hyundai Group are 25.45 trillion won with 28.59 trillion won in total assets. If they are separated from the group, Hyundai`s total sales and assets would shrink to 71.15 trillion won and 61.31 trillion won.

An official at the FTC said that the FTC would approve the spin-off if institutional investors and individual investors who purchased the Hyundai Motor shares sold by Chung Ju-Yung had no special relationship with Hyundai Group and the sale of 2.7 million shares of Hyundai Motor stock owned by Hyundai Investment Trust as customer assets is completed.

Hyundai officials said that Hyundai Motor stock owned by Hyundai Investment Trust in the trust account are closely related to its customers, but if the FTC formally rejects such a claim, the trust company would consider selling the shares.

Prior to this, Hyundai Investment Trust, which purchased 300,000 shares of Hyundai Motor, sold all those shares to individual investors August 23, as FTC pointed out the purchase could serve as an obstacle for the projected spin-off of eight Hyundai Motor affiliates.