Far more than just a
car company, Daewoo is (or rather was)
one of the largest
industrial
conglomerates in the world. Founded in
1967 in
South Korea it
rapidly became one of the true success stories of the
Asian Tiger
economic boom. Within 15 years the company was producing
light and
heavy engineering, was one of the world's major
shipbuilders, had
offices on every
continent and was turning over half a
billion
US
dollars every month.
The expansion continued apace throughout the 1980s with forays into
chemical production, oil drilling and a mind-boggling array of
industrial processes. A major campaign was launched to export their
low-priced medium-quality cars to Europe and to the US, and in 1996
they were in the top 10 largest companies in the world.
Then came the Asian economic crash, and Daewoo's fortunes abruptly
reversed. Extremely over-exposed to the Asian market Daewoo's huge
profits suddenly became equally huge losses.
Haemorrhaging millions of dollars every day all kinds of restructuring
plans were tried, but eventually the debts became overwhelming and on
November 7, 2000 the group was declared officially bankrupt with
global debts of over US$10 billion.