By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter
The stocks of all four companies of C& Group, the construction and heavy industries business group, fell by nearly their daily limit of 15 percent. The fall followed a day of big drops that poured cold water on a rising KOSPI Wednesday after the mid-sized group was rumored to be heading for a corporate workout.
On Thursday, C& Merchant Marine fell 13.2 percent to 165 won ($0.13); C& Heavy Industries, 14.6 percent to 850 won; C& Woobang, 14.5 percent; and C& Woobang Land, 14.7 percent. Their drops came during a day that saw a stiff bounce back across the board.
C& Group has been the focus of rumors of a financial crunch due to a liquidity problem.
``The company is considering joint management with lenders, but nothing has been determined yet,'' a C& Group spokesman said.
Creditors of the company explained there was no critical problem in repaying loans, but this failed to ease market insecurity. Currently the company's overall loans are estimated at 1.3 trillion won ($1.04 billion).
C& Group, founded from a shipping company, sharply emerged in the business community in 2003 in a series of merges & acquisitions (M&As) including a couple of smaller shipping firms.
C& Heavy Industries, the shipbuilding arm of the group, had been considered the group's growth engine on the back of a booming global shipbuilding market, but its business has suffered a blow from the ongoing financial crisis. Exorbitant M&A costs, however, have caught up with the expansion-oriented conglomerate.
C& Heavy Industries faced rumors that it was close to bankruptcy throughout this year and was unable to construct ships that had been ordered.