Korea & Company Group is acquiring management rights of Hanon Systems, the world's second-largest automotive climate control company. Korea Tire & Technology will take over the shares held by Han & Company, the former largest shareholder, thereby gaining management control.
On the 3rd, Korea & Company Group held a board meeting and decided to acquire 25% of the existing shares of Hanon Systems and participate in a paid-in capital increase. The existing shares are 25% held by the private equity firm Han & Company, and the shares to be acquired through the capital increase are 12.2% of new shares.
Through this, Korea & Company Group’s subsidiary Korea Tire & Technology will hold a total of 50.53% of the shares, becoming the largest shareholder of Hanon Systems. The private equity firm Han & Company will remain the second-largest shareholder. The investment amount for this contract is approximately 1.733 trillion KRW.
Korea & Company Group plans to complete all necessary procedures for the acquisition by the end of this year at the earliest. Once the acquisition process is completed, Korea & Company Group’s global total assets are expected to grow to about 26 trillion KRW, entering the top 30 business groups in Korea.
Cho Hyun-beom, chairman of Korea & Company, stated, "By possessing tires and automotive thermal management technology, which are key components in the electric vehicle era, we will leap forward as a high-technology company for the electric vehicle era," adding, "While expanding the group’s scale, we will grow into a group with sales of 30 trillion KRW by 2030 through additional business expansion based on next-generation technology beyond the automotive industry."
Hanon Systems is the second-largest player in the global automotive thermal management market, following Japan’s Denso. Starting as an automotive climate control parts company, it has recently grown into a thermal energy management solution company in the eco-friendly vehicle market.
Hanon Systems was launched in 1986 as a joint venture between Mando Machinery and Ford Motor Company and was incorporated into Ford Visteon in 1998. Later, in 2014, Han & Company formed a consortium with Korea Tire to acquire 70% of Hanon Systems shares held by Visteon. The previous shareholder structure had Han & Company as the largest shareholder and Korea Tire as the second-largest, but with this memorandum of understanding, the first and second largest shareholders will be switched.
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