Daewoo Founder Poised for Comeback
By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter
Kim Woo-choong, the 71-year-old founder of the now-defunct Daewoo Group, is stretching himself after a long dormancy in a move to regain his lost reputation over the past decade, according to sources Wednesday.
He plans to tour China, Vietnam and the United States right after the Lunar New Year holiday early next month, the first tangible move to regain his business senses since the special pardon that made the former tycoon a ``free man’’ late last year.
Kim is expected to fly to Vietnam as early as March or April to check out the construction business in the Southeast Asian country, according to Daewoo Motor Sales President and CEO Lee Dong-ho, a close confidant to the former Daewoo Group chairman.
``I met him last week and he told me that he’d like to make an overseas trip after the Seollal holiday early next month,’’ Lee said at a dinner meeting with journalists Tuesday. ``He was wondering what to do in the coming 10 years. He looked quite healthy.’’
Since early this year, he has prepared for issuance of a passport and visas for the trips, according to other aides. He is still respected by some people as a pioneer of global management for his entrepreneurship and his famous maxim: ``The world is wide and there is lots of work to do!’’
President-elect Lee Myung-bak, however, kept a cautious attitude on the disgraced businessman’s plans, who many watchers expect would ultimately take a path for the restoration of his impaired reputation and resumption of management activities.
``He does not say what he’ll do at the moment,’’ Lee said, denying recent news reports that Kim may play a certain role in a government project under the incoming Lee Myung-bak administration. ``I think it’s time for him to restore his health fully and entertain ideas for future activities.’’
Some media reported last week that Kim may resume business activities through the Saemangeum development project, North Jeolla Province, where a leisure complex including a high-rise landmark will be built. Lee, the Daewoo Motor Sales CEO, denied the speculation flatly.
Kim went on the run exile before his group broke up in 1999 in the aftermath of the 1998-97 financial crisis. He returned home in 2005 and was sentenced to eight and a half years in jail in 2006. But the sentence was soon suspended due to his illness. He was granted a special pardon on Dec. 31 last year.
In the meantime, Lee said that the top executive of General Motors (GM) hopes the company's South Korean unit, GM Daewoo Auto & Technology, would eventually command a fifth of the local market, nearly doubling its current share to challenge domestic leader Hyundai Motor.
``I heard that GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner told GM Daewoo Chief Executive Michael Grimaldi at the recent auto show in Detroit to lift its market share to as much as 20 percent,’’ he told reporters.
Daewoo Motor Sales, which mainly sells GM Daewoo vehicles, accounted for about 10 percent of the local market last year, lagging far behind Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia Motors, which together held more than 70 percent.
Lee added that his company would begin selling vehicles of Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors on the South Korean market from September with an aim to increase his firm’s revenue.