Kumho Asiana Chairman Park Sam-koo.

Kumho Asiana Group set the 2015 management buzzword as jagangbulsahik, which translates as ceaseless endeavors. Kumho Asiana Chairman Park Sam-koo designed 2015 as the first year of making a fresh start after the “2nd Founding” of the group.

In his speech at a ceremony to embark on the new year at the Kumho Art Hall in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, on Jan. 2, Chairman Park expounded the group’s 2015 management tenets: posting 2 trillion won in sales and 732 billion won in operating profit, wrap up restructuring of the group, including corporate governance, and making the group a respected, beautiful company.

Kumho Asiana declared the “second founding” of the group in early 2014 and devoted itself to putting the group back on track. The group set as preconditions for normalizing the group the graduating of debt workout programs on the part of Kumho Tire and Kumho Industrial Co., the group’s major subsidiaries, as well as Asiana Airline’s graduation of an individual voluntary arrangement with creditors. 

In reality, Kumho Industrial Co. virtually decided to end a debt workout program it was undergoing with creditors last December. Kumho Tire and Asiana Airlines graduated from a debt workout program with its creditors and an individual voluntary arrangement with its creditors last December, respectively. Kumho Industrial Co. creditors' plan to dispose of their 57.5 percent stake in the company by the first half of the year. Kumho Asiana is now faced with a task on how to reinstate management rights of Kumho Industrial Co., the virtual holding company of the group. 

Each subsidiary of the group has been endeavoring to be back on its feet after a crisis. Kumho Tire resumed the construction of a tire manufacturing plant in Georgia, the United States in June 2014 as part of efforts to make inroads into the North American markets. The Georgia plant is capable of churning out 4 million tires annually. It is to be dedicated by early 2016. 

Asiana Airlines, which introduced two A380s last year, plans to purchase a total of six A380s, including two each in 2015 and 2016, as part of efforts to firm up competitiveness in mid- and long-haul flight routs. 

Kumho Industrial plans to turn to stability and profitability with a focus on winning public project orders.