The spin-off plan for Hanwha(000880), which serves as Hanwha Group's holding company, passed the shareholders' meeting on the 15th. The corporate governance overhaul to split the company into a surviving entity centered on defense, shipbuilding, energy, and finance, and a newly established entity in charge of machinery, robots, semiconductor equipment, and retail, has been finalized.
Hanwha held an extraordinary shareholders' meeting on the morning of the 15th at Royal Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, and passed the "agenda to approve the partitioning plan" as originally proposed. With shareholders approving the spin-off item resolved by the board in January this year, the group's restructuring has effectively entered the final stage.
This partitioning separates certain operations from the existing Hanwha to establish a new entity. The split ratio is 0.7563533 for the surviving entity and 0.2436467 for the new entity, or about 76 to 24 based on net worth book value. The effective date of the split is on the 1st of next month. The board will meet on the 3rd thereafter, and on the 25th of the same month, the surviving entity will undergo a change in listing and the new entity will be newly listed.
The new entity will be "Hanwha Machinery & Service Holdings Co., Ltd." (tentative). It absorbed the tech-life institutional sector, encompassing retail, robots, and semiconductor equipment from the existing Hanwha. Accordingly, machinery and equipment affiliates such as Hanwha Vision, Hanwha Momentum, and Hanwha Semitech, and retail affiliates such as Hanwha Galleria and Hanwha Hotels & Resorts will be reorganized under the new entity.
The surviving entity Hanwha will focus its capabilities on core businesses such as defense, shipbuilding, energy, and finance. Core affiliates including Hanwha Aerospace, Hanwha Ocean, and Hanwha Solutions will remain with the surviving entity.
With this restructuring, the division of roles among Hanwha Group's third-generation owners has become clearer. Elder son Kim Dong-Kwan, vice chairman, will oversee the group's core of defense, shipbuilding, and energy; second son Kim Dong-Won, president, will handle finance; and third son Kim, executive vice president, will take charge of the tech-life pillar. Late last year, the three brothers adjusted equity in Hanwha Energy, the key to succession, from the previous 50%, 25%, and 25% to 50%, 20%, and 10%, respectively, consolidating support behind Vice Chairman Kim Dong-Kwan.