Doosan Infracore to Hold Meeting with Labor Union on Sale on the 19th

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] Doosan Infracore's management, ahead of the final bid for the sale, will hold a meeting with the labor union on the 19th to discuss matters related to the sale.

According to Doosan Infracore on the 17th, the company's management will arrange a session around 10 a.m. at the Incheon headquarters to explain the progress of the sale to union executives.

Currently, wage and collective bargaining agreements (Wage and Collective Agreement) are underway at Doosan Infracore. Therefore, the meeting will be held in the form of an informal discussion between Park Jun-young, Executive Vice President and Head of HR at Doosan Infracore, who represents the management in the wage negotiations, and the union executives.

Since the management plans to hold a meeting with the union at the time of the final bid for Doosan Infracore, attention is focused on whether there will be any advanced explanations regarding the current progress of the sale.

Doosan plans to conduct the final bid for Doosan Infracore on the 24th, a week later than the originally scheduled date around the 17th of this month. Earlier, on September 28, Doosan Group held a preliminary bid for Doosan Infracore, resulting in six companies participating as preliminary acquisition candidates (shortlist), including the consortium of Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings and KDB Investment, the consortium of GS Construction and Dominus Investment, and Eugene Corporation.

It is also reported that the on-site due diligence at Doosan Infracore’s Incheon headquarters and Bucheon plant, which began last week, has been completed. The shortlist was informed of this schedule after recently completing management interviews (MP). The extension of the preliminary due diligence and the continuation of interviews appear to have caused a slight delay in the final bid.

Currently, inside and outside Doosan, attention is focused on whether to bear the litigation risk related to the approximately 800 billion KRW Chinese subsidiary (DICC) of Doosan Infracore and on the sale conditions related to employment after the sale. It is expected that the union will also raise questions regarding these issues.

While conducting the preliminary bid for Doosan Infracore, Doosan considered ways to take responsibility for contingent liabilities that might arise from DICC, but it is known that they have since changed their stance. Since the final bid date has been set, it is analyzed that some level of opinion exchange and consensus regarding the DICC litigation risk has been reached with the shortlisted candidates.

However, a Doosan Infracore official stated, "In this meeting, it is expected that the management will explain their intention to do their best to maintain employment to the union."