Kumho Tires to be Listed in Seoul and London Next Month

Kumho Tires to be Listed in Seoul and London Next Month. January. 12, 2005 22:36. legman@donga.com.

Kumho Tires, the word 11th largest tire maker will be listed in Seoul and London next month.

The simultaneous listing is expected to boost the IPO market and draw attention to Korean corporations. It also signals the completion of structural reform of Kumho Asiana Group which started in 1998.

Kumho Tires will submit the offering documents to the financial supervisory institutions of both countries and will be listed simultaneously, according to the Korea Stock Exchange and relative sources on January 12.

Kumho Tires is the first Korean company to be simultaneously listed in Seoul and London in three years since LG Chem was listed in Dec. 2001. The number of Korean companies listed in both countries will be increased to nine. Currently, POSCO, SK Telecom, Hyundai Motor, KT, Hana Bank, LG Electronics and LG Chem are listed both in Seoul and London.

Cheong Gwang-Sun, the president of Korea Corporate Governance Service (KCGS,) said, “The listing will enhance transparency of corporate governance.”

The listing will drastically change the ownership structure of the company. With the listing, the current largest shareholder of Kumho Tires, the Military Mutual Aid Association (50 percent), will possess 20 percent more than the second largest, Kumho Industrial (30 percent). However, the MMAA is planning to sell 11 percent to Cooper Tire, a U.S. tire maker.

Moreover, the MMAA is expected to sell the remaining stocks in the near future. Therefore, Kumho Industrial is likely to become the largest shareholder next year.

Ahn Soo-Woong, a senior researcher of Hanhwa Securities said, “The listing will lay a foundation for the company to expand. Kumho Tires is expected to focus on opening up markets in China, expanding manufacturing plants in NanXing.”

In an effort to decide the initial price, Kumho Tires is planning to conduct demand forecasts based on institutional investors after the IR sessions in the middle of this month. After deciding the price, the company will be listed in Seoul and London in February after the offering documents submission and bidding.

Retail investors can buy the company’s share at the bidding which is scheduled to take place in the 3rd week of February. The price is expected to range from 13,000 to 16,000 won.

Kumho Tires will offer 200 billion won among the total of 315 billion won to overseas investors and offer the remaining to domestic institutional and retail investors.