Seoul: Hyundai Heavy Industries has disclosed its intention to take over Hyundai Oilbank. HHI said on March 25 in a regulatory filing that it held a board of directors meeting and informed IPIC, the majority stakeholder in Hyundai Oilbank, of its decision to exercise a "deemed offer" to buy IPIC's entire stake (70 percent). HHI said, "We judged that IPIC, the majority stakeholder of Hyundai Oilbank, violated the agreement between shareholders which it had signed with former affiliates of Hyundai Group," adding that, "Once informed, the deemed offer cannot be withdrawn." HHI's move constitutes an official announcement of its plan to take over Hyundai Oilbank as the second largest stakeholder (holding a 19.8 percent stake) in the oil refiner.
Furthermore, the world's largest shipbuilder said, "If IPIC declines to accept the deemed offer to buy the shares, the deal will proceed only when it is endorsed by an arbitrator." Accordingly, HHI filed to seek arbitration of a legal dispute with the international court of arbitration in Singapore over IPIC's violation of the agreement, and its purported exercising of the deemed offer. Earlier, HHI raised the legal dispute, saying that IPIC violated the agreement in connection with its disposal of the Hyundai Oilbank stake. Recognizing that IPIC was seeking to transfer its stake to GS Group, the shipbuilding giant filed suit with a local court to seek an injunction to block three GS affiliates from acquiring stakes from IPIC. [26/03/08]
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