Shares of Taekwang Industrial, a KOSPI-listed company, were strong early on the 14th following news that it is pushing to acquire K Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. (formerly STX Offshore & Shipbuilding) in partnership with U.S. private equity firm Texas Pacific Group (TPG).
Taekwang Industrial shares traded at 841,000 won on the KOSPI market at 9:37 a.m. The price rose 0.84% from the previous day. Early in the session, the stock jumped more than 3% to as high as 860,000 won.
Buying appears to have surged after media reports on the previous day that Taekwang Industrial, a petrochemical affiliate of Taekwang Group, formed a consortium with TPG and jointly submitted a preliminary letter of intent (LOI) to acquire K Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. The industry is citing a sale price around 1 trillion won.
Recently, Taekwang Group has been entering large-scale mergers and acquisitions (M&A) one after another. Last month, it signed a deal to acquire Aekyung Industrial for 470 billion won, and it also joined the main bidding for IGIS Asset Management.