Ex-Daewoo Group Chairman Kim Woo-choong dies at 82
People pay their respects at a memorial altar for former Daewoo Group Chairman Kim Woo-choong at Ajou University Hospital funeral hall in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday. Yonhap
By Kwak Yeon-soo
Former Daewoo Group Chairman Kim Woo-choong passed away late Monday at age 82 after having struggled with illness for about a year, according to an organization affiliated with the now-defunct conglomerate, Tuesday.
The founder of the trading-to-automobile conglomerate died while undergoing treatment at Ajou University Hospital in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, the Daewoosky Institute said, without revealing any details.
“It is with great sadness that we share the news that Kim Woo-choong, a man who was respected by many and touted as an inspiration to the country's young, died of a chronic illness,” the organization said.
Kim was once recognized as one of the most successful businessmen in Korea, bringing Daewoo up to become one of major conglomerates here and paving the way for its international expansion in emerging markets of Eastern Europe and Africa.
Kim launched Daewoo to export textiles to Southeast Asian markets in March 1967, and the trading company grew into Daewoo Group, then the country's second-largest conglomerate following Hyundai Group, through leveraged buyouts.
By the late 1990s, Daewoo had acquired dozens of companies in the fields of securities, vehicles, trading, shipping and construction.
Kim Woo-choong talks about Daewoo's global business strategies at DAEWOO-FSO factory in Warsaw, in this March 13, 1996 file photo. Korea Times file
Under the chairman's motto “It's a big world and there's lots to be done,” the conglomerate aggressively made a foray into foreign markets ― Daewoo's exports accounted for 14 percent, or $18.6 billion, of the country's overall exports worth $132.3 billion in 1998.
However, Daewoo's inexorable expansion over-diversified its business structure, leaving the company with massive debts.
The company faced financial problems during the 1997 Asian financial crisis. The group came up with a restructuring plan to reduce the number of affiliates from 41 to 10 in 1998, but most of the companies were forced to enter a workout program due to liquidity problems in 1999. As a result, the group went bankrupt the same year.
Daewoo's flagship company, Daewoo Motor, was sold to General Motors in 2002 and renamed GM Korea. Its other affiliates, such as Daewoo Engineering & Construction and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, were sold to domestic rivals.
In 2006, he was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison for embezzlement and accounting fraud and ordered to forfeit 17.9 trillion won. He received a special presidential pardon the following year.
Afterwards, Kim spent most of his time in Vietnam, where he focused on nurturing Korean entrepreneurs under a project named Global Young Business Manager (GYBM), until he returned to Korea for medical treatment.
Business lobby groups honored the late businessman.
“He was an inspiration to entrepreneurs and businessmen around the nation with his pioneering ideas and passion,” the Federation of Korean Industries said in a statement.
“He exemplifies the traits that should endow us, industriousness, discipline, creativity and always hungry for knowledge.”
The Korea Enterprises Federation mourned the passing of Kim, remembering him as the “man who always paved the way for businesspeople and contributed significantly to the country's economic growth.”
“In his will, Kim asked for the GYBM program be continually developed to help young people enter foreign markets and encourage them to launch their own businesses there,” Daewoosky Institute Chairman Jang Byung-joo said.
Kim is survived by his wife, Chung Hee-ja, and three children.