"In the past, POSCO Group supported domestic industry by supplying steel materials. Going forward, we plan to expand our business into strategic resources such as lithium and into energy resources, in order to supply the materials needed for future industries such as artificial intelligence and robotics," said Chang In-hwa, chairman of POSCO Holdings (005490.KS).
Chang laid out the vision in an appearance on Sampro TV, an economy-focused YouTube channel, in an episode released on the 17th of last month, pledging to make the group a core supply-chain company underpinning what he called an "irreplaceable Korea." The appearance marked an unusual outreach effort for the head of one of Korea's top 10 conglomerates.
Chang spent most of his time introducing a plan to build a "Triple Core" business system centered on three pillars: steel as an "industrial resource"; lithium, cathode materials and rare earths as "strategic resources"; and liquefied natural gas (LNG) and renewables as "energy resources." Coming after his presentation to major investors at the group's CEO Investor Day early last month, the appearance amounted to an online investor relations session aimed at the general body of shareholders and prospective investors. Through it, POSCO Group also reaffirmed its goal of reaching combined revenue of 187 trillion won and operating profit of 13.1 trillion won by 2035.
"For Korea, what matters is not simply importing energy and mineral resources, but turning them into high-value-added products through investment and downstream processing," Chang said. "POSCO Group is a company with strength in these process industries." He stressed in particular that "because large-scale investment is required, we must compete with fully developed technology built on research and development," describing the group as the No. 1 company leading Korea's process industries in a "guardian" role.
This vision gained further momentum as POSCO Holdings secured a combined 2.5002 trillion won by selling part of its stakes in listed affiliates POSCO International and POSCO DX. The move marks the start of a full-scale effort to secure the funding needed to invest 16.7 trillion won in future growth over the next three years. The sale covers 36,434,963 shares of POSCO International and 23,385,917 shares of POSCO DX, worth 2.01849695 trillion won and 481.749989 billion won, respectively. The scheduled sale date is September 7.
POSCO Holdings said the aim was "to secure strategic investment funding to resolve the holding-company discount and enhance corporate value." Once the sale is completed, POSCO Holdings' stakes in POSCO International (previously 70.71%) and POSCO DX (65.38%) will fall to 50%, though it will remain the largest shareholder in both.
To carry out the sale, POSCO Holdings is signing price return swap (PRS) contracts with NH Investment & Securities and Kiwoom Securities, among others. A PRS is an over-the-counter derivative in which gains and losses from changes in the price of an underlying asset are settled with the counterparty. At the settlement date, the shares are disposed of by mutually accounting for the difference between the actual sale amount and a reference price. The contracts run for three years, with reference prices set at the closing prices on the 5th of 55,400 won per share for POSCO International and 20,600 won per share for POSCO DX. Under its policy of optimizing stakes in listed affiliates at 50%, POSCO Holdings is expected to soon dispose of its POSCO Future M holdings (a 58.2% stake) beyond the 50% level as well.
