[THE INVESTOR] Three South Korean companies were selected on Sept. 8 to become the first beneficiaries of the newly established law aimed at facilitating voluntary corporate restructuring, the Trade Ministry here said.

The Special Act on the Corporate Revitalization, dubbed the “one-shot act,” came into effect in early August to help businesses carry out an intra-corporate merger and spin-off through simplified procedures including exemptions from the strict antitrust laws and financial market regulations.

They will also be given tax benefits and subsidies for research and development on corporate restructuring.

The ministry said a government panel, comprising 20 experts, chose three firms -- Hanwha Chemical, Unid and Tongyang Moolsan -- out of four applicants. 



Hanwha Chemical, a chemical arm of Hanwha Group, is seeking to sell its chlorine and caustic soda plant to Unid, a local chemicals manufacturer, as part of its business reorganizing efforts to deal with industry-wide oversupply of such materials and upgrade its business portfolio.

At the same time, Unid will transform the facility into a sodium hydroxide-manufacturing factory in a bid to cut output of caustic soda and focus more on higher value-added sodium hydroxide, according to the ministry.

The two companies have plans to invest a combined 1 trillion won (US$915.6 million) into the business reshuffle project.

Tongyang Moolsan, a farming machine producing company, will invest some 25 billion won into restructuring and rearrangement through taking over a machinery firm.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)