Daewoo Split Predicted To Add Value

The splitting of Daewoo Heavy Industries into three firms should boost shareholder value, analysts said. The companies will eventually benefit from the split, analysts said, calling it a "painful but inevitable choice." Analysts said the shipbuilding and machinery units would be reborn as clean companies, while Daewoo Heavy Industries Co. would become a paper company, shouldering most of the company's debts. However, they said, Daewoo Heavy will eventually be liquidated in four or five years once it settles its internal debt issues. A shareholders meeting approved a plan to split the company into Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co, machinery maker Daewoo Heavy Industries and Machinery Ltd., with Daewoo Heavy Industries Co taking the remaining operations.