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Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn is speculated to return to management as soon as his suspended sentence ordered by a court ends on Monday.
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| Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn |
His possible comeback is drawing attention especially at a time when Hanwha has been in the hot seat over an explosion on Thursday at its munitions factory in Daejeon, which killed three people. The same factory reported an explosion in May last year, in which two people were killed.
In February 2014, the court handed Kim a three-year jail term, suspended for five years, for causing big losses for the company by illegally supporting weak affiliates he owned.
At the time, Kim quit his CEO positions at seven affiliates, including Hanwha Corporation, Hanwha Chemical and Hanwha Engineering & Construction.
Since then, he has kept a low profile, while remaining as the group's chairman without the authority to, for example, sign contracts.
Once the suspended sentence ends, Kim may be moving to return to CEO positions of some of Hanwha affiliates, industry sources said, expecting him to return to Hanwha's core businesses such as solar energy, in which he can actively utilize his global networks.
However, he will have to wait another two years to take the CEO positions at the group's financial, chemical and hotel units. This is because of the additional punishment law on violators of economic laws, which bans those convicted from working at financial companies and firms related to the convicted crime for two years after the end of the suspended sentence.
Regarding the speculation on Kim's possible comeback, an official from Hanwha Group said Friday, "Nothing has been decided concerning Kim's return to management."
Some observers raised the possibility for Kim to continue to remain as the group's chairman and play a role as a "mentor" for smooth transfer of management control to his sons, including his eldest, Kim Dong-gwan, who has virtually led Hanwha Q Cells, the group's solar cell manufacturing arm.
Meanwhile, Hanwha Q Cells has given up a project to construct a 1-gigawatt solar plant in Ankara, Turkey, according to its parent company, Hanwha Chemical, Thursday.
In 2017, Hanwha Q Cells won the project worth 1.5 trillion won ($1.3 billion) from Turkey, but the project has made little progress partially due to the collapse of the Turkish lira.
"Discussion is underway to change a business entity to carry out the project amid a change in the world economic situation and growing variability in Turkey," an official from Hanwha Chemical said.
