By Seo Jee-yeon
Staff Reporter

Kumgang Korea Chemical (KCC) on Friday declared the company would take over the Hyundai Group by securing more than half of the shares in Hyundai Elevator, the de facto holding company of the group.

The announcement came one day after Hyundai Elevator chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun, widow of the late Hyundai Asan chairman Chung Mong-hun, made it clear she would chair the Hyundai Group in accordance with her late husband’s will.

In a media conference at KCC headquarters in southern Seoul, KCC executive vice chairman Chung Jong-soon said the total shares that KCC, its affiliates and KCC honorary chairman Chung Sang-young, youngest brother of Hyundai group founder Chung Ju-yung, currently hold, account for 44.39 percent of Hyundai’s total shares.

Among KCC’s total shares in Hyundai Elevator, he said KCC honorary chairman Chung secured a 12.82 percent stake through the Shinhan-BNP private equity fund.

He claimed that KCC’s shareholding will rise to 50 percent if other Hyundai affiliates holding Hyundai Elevator stocks, join hands with KCC.

The KCC executive vice chairman also expressed the company’s clear intention to control the group, saying that KCC will seek a rebirth of the Hyundai Group as the largest shareholder, defending the group from any kind of hostile takeover bids.

Once the Fair Trade Commission permits KCC to own the Hyundai Group, affiliates under Hyundai Elevator, including Hyundai Merchant Marine and Hyundai Securities, will officially be annexed to KCC.

``With the Hyundai Group under the control of KCC, some of the group’s nonviable North Korean businesses orchestrated by Hyundai Merchant Marine could fold,’’ KCC vice president Chung said.

When asked about a top management reshuffle in the Hyundai Group, he declined to comment on the exact timing.

``The group’s management change will be discussed later,’’ he said.

However, KCC management made it clear that they cannot accept Hyun as group chairperson, although they would permit Hyun to continue running Hyundai Elevator.

Since the suicide of Chung Mong-hun in early August, his family members have been locked in dispute over control of the struggling conglomerate. The family conflict was triggered by the inauguration of Hyun Jeong-eun as the chairwoman of Hyundai Elevator on Oct. 21.

The 48-year-old Hyun, who controls Hyundai Elevator through her mother’s 19 percent stake, installed herself as Hyundai Group chairperson.

However, KCC chairman Chung Sang-yung immediately raised an objection to Hyun’s role as group chairwoman, allegedly out of fears that the Chung family would lose control of the Hyundai Group to the Hyun family.

jyseo@koreatimes.co.kr