쌍용건설

Zero bank loans for a stable financial structure
Beginnings of a transformation into the greatest constructor in the world

Ssangyong E&C (CEO Kim S. Joon) began its return to the ranks of major global constructors since welcoming Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), a state fund of a global scale from the UAE, as its majority shareholder in early 2015.

As a holdings company managing one of UAE’s two state funds, ICD controls assets worth ￦230 trillion (as of end of 2015). In terms of assets owned, ICD is bigger than more than fifty of the UAE’s largest corporations, including Emirates NBD (largest bank in the UAE), Emirates (UAE’s state-owned airline), and Emirates National Oil Company.

ICD is also actively pursuing mega development projects via its stakes in Emaar Properties, which owns the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest hotel, and Nakheel, the developer of the artificial archipelago known as the Palm Jumeirah.

By welcoming a global state fund with immense capital power as its majority shareholder, Ssangyong E&C not only saw drastic and instant increases in its domestic and international credit ratings, but also built a foundation for growth as a global major boasting advanced engineering and construction technologies and a stable financial structure. In fact, Ssangyong E&C regained the BCA A1 rating (the highest rating available) in early 2015 via its participation in a government project in Singapore and then in July the same year signed with United Overseas Bank, the largest retail bank in Singapore, a maximum-guarantee-limit agreement based on fee rates offered to organizations with the highest credit rating.

Domestically, Ssangyong E&C acquired the A- corporate credit rating for public tender and, in June, obtained the BBB (stable) rating during NICE Investors Service’s corporate-credit evaluations. What’s also interesting is the fact that Ssangyong Engineering & Construction has no debt to any financial institution and therefore incurs zero interest costs.

Ssangyong E&C is also realizing synergistic benefits from its status as the only construction company within ICD’s investment portfolio, most notable of which is the concurrent acquisition as a part of a consortium of three high-end construction projects in Dubai worth US$1.2 billion in December last year.

“Dubai’s construction market has a particularly high barrier of entry, and we have been able to successfully enter this market by acquiring equitable contracts rather than using a strategy of tendering the lowest bid. We expect to secure additional contracts in the region, including those related to the Expo 2020 Dubai, and, by leveraging ICD’s influence and resources, to expand into neighboring markets in the Middle East, Africa, and even Europe,” said a representative from Ssangyong E&C.