Chairman Kim Seung-yeon tapped his three sons on the shoulder in turn…accelerating Hanwha’s business reorganization

Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-yeon visited a financial affiliate led by his second son, Hanwha Life Insurance President Kim Dong-won. As Hanwha Group’s business reorganization is accelerating this year, there is analysis that Chairman Kim is empowering his sons through successive field management.

According to Hanwha Group on the 26th, Chairman Kim visited the 63 Building in Yeouido, Seoul, the headquarters of Hanwha Life Insurance, the day before and met with executives and employees of Hanwha’s financial affiliates. President Kim Dong-won also attended the event.

Previously, Chairman Kim visited Hanwha Aerospace Daejeon R&D Campus on the 29th of last month and resumed field management activities after 5 years and 4 months. Then, on the 5th, he visited Hanwha Robotics headquarters in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province. Hanwha’s eldest son, Hanwha Group Vice Chairman Kim Dong-kwan, who oversees the space business, was present at the Hanwha Aerospace R&D campus, and his third son, Hanwha Galleria Vice President Kim Dong-seon, who directs the robot business, was present at the Hanwha Robotics headquarters.

On this day, Chairman Kim said, “The path to innovation in the financial industry is increasingly difficult. However, we are also pursuing expansion of our business overseas, starting with life insurance in Vietnam and now including non-life insurance and securities in Indonesia.” He continued, “As a result, Hanwha has entered into a new business area, the banking industry, by investing in local banks in Indonesia.”

Previously, on the 23rd, Hanwha Life decided to invest in a 40% stake in Nobu Bank in Indonesia, formalizing its entry into the banking industry. Hanwha Financial affiliates plan to advance beyond the life and non-life insurance business into the banking industry in overseas markets and establish themselves as a ‘global comprehensive financial group’ including securities and asset management. Chairman Kim wrote in the guestbook, ‘I support Hanwha Financial’s continuous challenge for innovation. “Let’s move forward together toward becoming a global No. 1 company expanding into the global market,” he wrote.

Hanwha Group has recently been speeding up its business structure restructuring. On the 5th, Hanwha Aerospace carried out a division of its subsidiaries, Hanwha Vision and Hanwha Precision Machinery. After the spin-off, it is highly likely that Vice Chairman Kim will be responsible for the aviation, defense, and aerospace businesses that will remain in Hanwha Aerospace, and the new holding company that will take over Hanwha Precision Machinery and Hanwha Vision will most likely be Vice Chairman Kim’s responsibility.

On the 3rd, Hanwha Corporation’s Momentum division was physically divided due to specialization in the secondary battery equipment business. If Vice President Kim takes over Hanwha Momentum, the business area he is responsible for will also expand from existing distribution to machinery. Until now, Vice President Kim has mainly been in charge of the distribution business, but his share of sales in the group was relatively small compared to his brothers, at 2%.

Vice President Kim has also steadily purchased shares in Hanwha Galleria since last year, securing more than 2%. Hanwha Galleria’s largest shareholder is Hanwha with 36.15%, and the second largest shareholder is Vice President Kim.

Once the business structure reorganization is completed, the succession structure of the three brothers Dong-gwan Kim, Dong-won, and Dong-seon is expected to become clearer, focusing on defense, energy, finance, distribution, and mechanical robots.