The stock price of Doosan has fallen for a fourth consecutive day, plunging more than 34% from its peak, even as the broader Kospi index rallied. Investor sentiment has rapidly chilled amid growing fears that the acquisition of SK Siltron may collapse, compounded by the suspension of acquisition financing discussions by South Korean banks.<\/p>\n
According to the Korea Exchange on the 17th, Doosan shares were trading at 162,200 won (approximately $1,072.82) as of 1:45 p.m., down 4.53% from the previous session. Following a sharp 9.86% drop on the 15th, the stock has now declined for three straight sessions, with a cumulative loss of 14.45% over that period. This is 34.83% below its all-time high of 248,900 won (approximately $1,646.27) reached on the 1st of this month. Just a month ago, the large-cap blue-chip stock was riding a steep upward trajectory on strong market expectations, only to reverse course dramatically.<\/p>\n
The market points to fears that the SK Siltron acquisition will fall through as the decisive factor behind Doosan’s sharp decline. Doosan had been selected as the preferred bidder to acquire SK Siltron as part of SK Group’s asset optimization strategy, putting the deal within reach. The stock had surged on the anticipated synergies with Doosan’s own semiconductor materials business, including high-spec copper-clad laminate (CCL) production.<\/p>\n
However, the atmosphere has shifted dramatically in recent days. Reports of internal disagreements within SK Group’s board and a full-scale review of the SK Siltron sale plan from scratch have sharply raised the possibility of the deal collapsing. The impasse is attributed to a valuation gap: SK is demanding a higher price as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom drives up wafer value, while Doosan wants price adjustments citing SK Siltron’s slowing earnings.<\/p>\n
To make matters worse, even the financial sector appears to be turning its back on Doosan. According to the Seoul Economic Daily, Korea Development Bank and Woori Bank have completely halted work on the 2.5 trillion won (approximately $1.7 billion) acquisition financing package they had agreed to provide to Doosan Group. With the equity value of a 100% stake in SK Siltron (70.6% held by SK Inc., 29.4% by Chairman Chey Tae-won) estimated at approximately 5 trillion won (approximately $3.3 billion), Doosan had planned to finance half of that amount through acquisition loans.<\/p>\n
A senior financial sector official familiar with the matter said, “It’s not at the stage where the contract between the two companies is completely broken,” but added, “It is true that both sides were about to sign the contract but ended up not being able to.” Another official involved in the acquisition financing said, “Since discussions were halted, we have yet to receive any updates from either SK or Doosan.”<\/p>\n
SK Group abruptly suspended discussions late last month, just ahead of the final stock purchase agreement (SPA) signing scheduled for the 28th. In a follow-up disclosure on the 15th regarding the SK Siltron sale, SK stated only that “detailed matters will be determined through consultation with the preferred bidder.”<\/p>\n
Business circles analyze that the valuation dispute is the primary cause of the stalled negotiations. The AI memory semiconductor supercycle has increased the strategic importance of wafers, leading to divergent views on valuation between the two sides. Within SK Group, voices are calling for a reassessment of the company’s strategic value given the expansion of AI and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) investments.<\/p>\n
The buyer, meanwhile, points to SK Siltron’s deteriorating earnings. SK Siltron’s EBITDA last year was 459.3 billion won (approximately $303.8 million), down 28.2% year-on-year, while first-quarter EBITDA this year fell 31.7% to 72 billion won (approximately $47.6 million). Net debt rose 17.8% year-on-year to 242.4 billion won (approximately $160.3 million).<\/p>\n
Some interpretations suggest the deal is highly likely to fall through. There are forecasts that SK has internally decided at the group level not to sell SK Siltron and could formalize this decision as early as this week or by next week at the latest. A senior business circle official stressed, “It is true that the overall atmosphere suggests the likelihood of the deal not happening has increased compared to before.”<\/p>\n
The fact that commercial banks have temporarily suspended acquisition financing discussions due to concerns over prolonged negotiations is also being interpreted by the market as a precursor to the deal’s collapse. With the funding pipeline at risk of drying up, investors who had already seen the stock price surpass 2 million won (approximately $1,322.84) rushed to lock in profits, accelerating the sell-off.<\/p>\n
Investor fatigue with Doosan-related stocks is also evident. Shareholders who previously experienced turbulence during the group’s governance restructuring efforts, including the attempted merger of Doosan Bobcat and Doosan Robotics, are once again being rattled by the news of this M&A impasse.<\/p>\n
Securities analysts are also urging caution, warning that if the uncertainty surrounding the large-scale M&A is not resolved, the financing burden and financial opportunity costs could grow, leading to a “winner’s curse.” Analysis suggests that in a rising Kospi bull market, institutional and foreign investors are reducing their exposure to uncertainty-laden Doosan and rotating into other blue-chip stocks.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, some assessments indicate that Doosan’s fundamentals remain solid. Daishin Securities raised its target price for Doosan to 222,000 won (approximately $1,468.35), pointing to the excessive decline and citing the company’s growing AI semiconductor material supply to Nvidia and its profitability.<\/p>\n
Lee Kyung-min, an analyst at Daishin Securities, said, “Demand for high-end CCL is structurally increasing due to the expansion of AI infrastructure investment.” He added, “The expansion of supply to Nvidia combined with product mix improvements is elevating the earnings power of the electronics business group to the next level.” Lee further forecast, “Doosan Enerbility’s expanding nuclear power plant orders will lead to an increase in equity value, and the vertical integration of the semiconductor value chain centered on Doosan Tesna and SemiFive is also progressing, which will further highlight the company’s value as a business holding company.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The stock price of Doosan has fallen for a fourth consecutive day, plunging more than 34% from its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[2589,891,410,409,408,18676,8677,65268,2295,65267,240,3226,626],"class_list":["post-127270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-doosan","tag-chey-tae-won","tag-daishin-securities","tag-doosan","tag-doosan-enerbility","tag-doosan-group","tag-doosan-tesna","tag-korea-development-bank","tag-lee-kyung-min","tag-nvidia","tag-semifive","tag-sk-group","tag-sk-siltron","tag-woori-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}