The acquisition would give Doosan a semiconductor portfolio spanning wafers, testing, packaging and advanced materials.
But a deal worth around 5 trillion won could add significant financial pressure to the group.
Park Jeong-won, Chairman of Doosan Group.
[Insight Korea = Yun Chan-woo]
Under Chairman Park Jeong-won’s bold decision, Doosan Group is entering its fourth major transformation. The shift comes as its acquisition of SK Siltron, a semiconductor wafer manufacturer, has effectively been confirmed. Doosan, which began as a fabric store before moving into food and beverages and then heavy industry, is now evolving into a semiconductor company.
The market sees the acquisition as a move that would allow Doosan Group to complete a portfolio covering both the upstream and downstream value chains of the semiconductor industry. Still, the financial burden from such a large-scale acquisition remains a key challenge.
Doosan to Secure 100 Percent of SK Siltron
According to business and investment banking sources on the 18th, Doosan Group is set to sign a stock purchase agreement, or SPA, at the end of this month for a combined 70.6 percent stake in SK Siltron. The stake includes 51 percent held by SK Group and 19.0 percent tied to a total return swap, or TRS, contract.
The acquisition is also said to include not only the stake held by SK Group, but also the 29.4 percent personal stake held by SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won within this year. Once the transaction is completed, Doosan Group will secure 100 percent of SK Siltron.
SK Group previously put SK Siltron up for sale as part of its business portfolio restructuring. The move was intended to improve its financial structure by selling noncore assets. Doosan Group was selected last December as the preferred bidder for the SK Siltron stake sale and reached the outcome after about five months of negotiations.
From Fabric Merchant to AI and Semiconductor Company
This transaction is not a simple merger and acquisition. It is a strategic choice aimed at transforming Doosan Group into a full-fledged AI and semiconductor company.
Doosan Group is Korea’s oldest business group. It began in 1896 as a fabric merchant, its first generation of business, then moved into food, beverages and retail as its second generation, before transforming into a heavy industry group in the 2000s as its third generation. In 2020, the group faced the largest liquidity crisis in its history because of problems at subsidiaries and briefly entered creditor management.
After emerging from creditor management, Doosan Group began building its AI and semiconductor portfolio in earnest from 2022. In March of that year, it entered the semiconductor market by acquiring the full available stake, 38.7 percent, in Korean semiconductor testing company Tesna, now Doosan Tesna, for 460 billion won. In December 2023, it completed the acquisition of semiconductor packaging company Engion, strengthening its back-end process capabilities.
The group is also making large-scale investments to match the expansion of the AI market. In April this year, Doosan’s Electronics Business Group announced plans to build a new production plant in Thailand worth about 180 billion won to respond preemptively to rising demand for copper clad laminate, or CCL, driven by the expansion of AI data centers. Construction is scheduled to begin within this year, with mass production targeted for the second half of 2028.
That same month, Doosan Tesna purchased 190.9 billion won worth of semiconductor testing equipment from companies including Teradyne and SEMES. It is also accelerating infrastructure expansion by resuming new facility investment of about 230 billion won in its delayed second plant in Pyeongtaek.
If the SK Siltron acquisition is completed, Doosan Group will secure a business structure that covers the semiconductor process chain from wafers, or front-end materials, to testing and packaging, or back-end processes, as well as Doosan Corporation’s Electronics Business Group CCL business and robotics and automation solutions. SK Siltron was the final piece in Doosan’s transformation.
Doosan Enerbility, led by Park’s younger brother, Vice Chairman Park Ji-won, is also drawing attention as a key power company in the AI era. The company is targeting the global AI energy infrastructure market with small modular reactors, or SMRs, and gas turbines. It turned to an operating profit in the first quarter this year and raised its order backlog to around 24 trillion won, showing a clear earnings recovery. Analysts say this is adding strength to the group’s AI and semiconductor transition strategy.
Funding of Around 5 Trillion Won and 4 Trillion Won Debt Burden Remain Challenges
Still, as a trillion-won-scale M&A deal, the transaction presents considerable short-term financial challenges. The biggest concern is pressure to secure funding.
The deal, estimated at around 5 trillion won, is expected to weigh on Doosan Group. SK Siltron is regarded as a company with stable cash-generating ability, but Doosan will also have to consider additional facility investment, research and development, and sales and quality response costs needed to expand overseas customers.
To secure funds, Doosan Group is moving to raise capital through measures such as selling shares in Doosan Robotics. However, industry observers believe that large-scale external borrowing or the attraction of financial investors, or FIs, will be unavoidable. If large borrowings are made in the current high-interest-rate environment, the group’s overall interest burden is also likely to increase.
The financial burden of SK Siltron itself is another issue. As of the first quarter of 2026, SK Siltron had total liabilities of about 4 trillion won and a debt-to-equity ratio of about 189 percent. If the company is incorporated as a consolidated subsidiary after the acquisition, the related debt burden is expected to be reflected in Doosan Group’s financial statements.
- This article was translated by ChatGPT. (이 기사는 챗GPT가 번역했습니다.)
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