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4 D V E R T I S E M 6 N
T
55ANGYO
NG GROUP
Conservat .ve Ssangyorg Turns Progressive Under New Chairman
he Ssangyong Group is South
Korea's sixrh-largest <strong>business</strong> group in terms
of assets <strong>and</strong> sales. Traditionally considered
conservative <strong>and</strong> slow in <strong>business</strong>,
Ssangyong has become progressive under iu
new chairman, who is determined to push
Ssangyong into the ranks of the world's 50
top enterprises by The year 2000 .
New Chairman <strong>and</strong> CEO Kim Sukioon,
42, rook the helm of Ssangongwhich
means °Two Dragons" in Korean-on April 25 as his predecessor <strong>and</strong> elder
brother, Kim Suk-Won, stepped down to
join President Kim Young-Sarris ruling
Democratic liberal Parrv <strong>and</strong> run for a
National Assembly seat .
"We will strive to become a world-class
enterprise by the turn of the century by
concentrating on three core manufacturing
sectors: automobiles <strong>and</strong> machinery, cement
<strong>and</strong> fine ceramics, <strong>and</strong> oil refining <strong>and</strong> related
petrochemicals," says Kim, who had
been the group's vice chairman for the last
five years, To achieve this goal, Szangyong must
discard its long-held image of being "conservative
<strong>and</strong> slow" in <strong>business</strong> <strong>and</strong> immediately
strive to be "aggressive <strong>and</strong> progressive,"
the youthful chiefexecutive officer
told some 30,000 employees upon his
assuming The top post .
He told his directors to rhink, decide
<strong>and</strong> put into action "always one step ahead"
of competitors .
According to The new chairman,
Ssangyong is giving top priority to developing
its automotive industry, already having
invested 1 .2 trillion won ($1 .54 billion),
<strong>and</strong> planning to pur in an additional 4 .8
trillion won ($6 .15 billion) within The next
flve years .
For the 2lst century, Ssangyong has set a
course to grow into a comprehensive worldclass
automaker with a full line of products
ranging from passenger cars to specialized
heaw-dury vehicles, Kim says, adding
rhat the automobile industry will become
Ssangyongs new comerstone for the
coming century .
At present,
the
Ssangvong
Motor
Compan,vis
producing
50,000 fourwheel-drive
utilirv
vehicles a vear in
a technical partnership
with Germany~s Mercedes-
Benz, which owns 5% of eauity worth
14 .5 billion won ($18 .6 million) .
With The new investment, Ssangynng
plans to start producing mid-size passenger
cars by 1997 with first-year production ot
50,000 units, progressively increasing to
300,000 units a yeas by 2000 .
Ssangyong was founded by his father,
Kim Sung-Kon, in 1939 as a soap-manufacturing
firm, <strong>and</strong> it developed into a textile
producer nine years later . Ssangyong
has grown to become a network of 22
afflliate companies ranging from cement,
oil refining <strong>and</strong> general rrading to construccon
<strong>and</strong> financial services, with 31 overseas
subsidiaries .
Its mtal annual revenues amounred to
$18 .5 billion, including overseas sales of
$3 .84 billion last year, with net earnings of
$193 million .
Ssangyong's cement company which
operates the world's largest cement planr on
Koreas east coast, producing 15 million
tons a year, fortified its U.S . operations
through a joint venture in California,
CenCal Cement Inc ., <strong>and</strong> acquisition of
Riverside Cement last year ro establish
localized production .
Ssangyong's engineering <strong>and</strong> construction
company has become international in
scope since building the Raffles City
Complex in Singapore in 1986, the world's
callest hotel, <strong>and</strong> undertaking construction
<strong>and</strong> sales of Marriott Residence Inns in
Anaheim, San Diego <strong>and</strong> Sacramento in
California .
It is now building what will be Singapore's
largest national hospiral, Tan Tock Seng, at a
"We wll
become a
worldclass
enterorise
by Concentrating
On autos
<strong>and</strong> machinery,
cement <strong>and</strong>
fine ceramics, <strong>and</strong> oil <strong>and</strong>
related petrochemicais ."
cost of S250 million, <strong>and</strong> just won the job
of building Viemarris 25-story Hanoi
Tower Center .
Kim, who studied <strong>business</strong> administration
at the University of Hartford in
Connecticut before starting at Ssangyvng in
1977, fl firmly believes that the development
of high-value-added quality products is the
sole way to survive in this era of unbounded
competition following the birth of the
World Trade Organization .
Thus Ssangyong's cement industry will
progress into general <strong>and</strong> new materials
including fine ceramics, <strong>and</strong> its oil-refining
<strong>business</strong> into petrochemicals .
It plans massive investment in computers
<strong>and</strong> special electronic communications
so that these high-tech industries will serve
as The new basis for continuing Ssangyong
growth <strong>and</strong> development beyond the
year 2000 .
Ssang,vong's service industries will accelerate
toward greater internationalization <strong>and</strong>
advancement to meet the dem<strong>and</strong>s of the
rimes, while in its trade <strong>and</strong> construction, it
will grow to multinational status through
full-fledged internarional investment .
If all goes according to plan, says an
ambitious Kim, Ssanv,,,vong will be among
the world's 50 largest <strong>business</strong>es in the next
millennium .
1~l ~20466 ~~373
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