Seeking Solutions to Sonangol Case
South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Yun Byung-se will meet Angolan foreign minister to seek solutions to the Sonangol case. Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) currently has a liquidity crisis as it failed to receive the payment of 1 trillion won (US$884.1 million) for drill ships from Angolan state oil firm Sonangol due to the delay in delivery.
A senior official from the government said on April 6, “Angola's Minister of Foreign Affairs Georges Chicoti will visit South Korea in the middle of this month, and Minister Yoon will meet him to discuss the Sonangol problem.”
The government was considering a plan for the Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chairman Lim Jong-ryong to meet Angolan foreign minister but it finally chose Yoon. Sonangol has made little progress in discussing charter rates with several major oil companies. The senior official from the government said, “Sonangol and major oil companies now have meaningless discussions over charter rates. The meeting with Angolan foreign minister will not be able to solve the problem right away but we are working on all fronts to get this resolved.”
“When DSME fails to readjust its debts, the company needs to introduce the pre-packaged plan (P-Plan). The company is actually ready to adopt the P-Plan. The heads of the Korea Development Bank, the Export-Import Bank of Korea and DSME will hold a meeting with 32 institutional investors to explain the plan to normalize DSME on April 10,” said Lim to reporters before the fintech demo day at the 63 building in Yeouido, Seoul.
Meanwhile, the National Pension Service hasn’t decided on whether to accept the DSME restructuring plan yet. It will hold another meeting of the investment board again and make the final decision by the end of next week.
In order to normalize the business, all employees of DSME, including production workers, have agreed to return 10 percent of their wages, while executives will return 30 to 40 percent. DSME President Chung Sung-rip and all other executives have pledged to resign when DSME fails to turn a profit this year.