Chairman Park Sam-koo of Kumho-Asiana Group said, “We have just completed our reorganization and it’s about time to work for the creation of our group for the second time in the second half.”

The chairman at the welcoming ceremony for newly-hired employees on July 2 at the group’s headquarters office in Shinmun-ro, Seoul, said today is the first day for all members of the group to take their first step toward a new start for Kumho-Asiana now that all the problems faced by the group are behind them with a new determination and frame of mind.

Park told some 140 new employees of the group that they are the first group hired by the newly-born Kumho-Asiana, adding that any talent gives in to sincerity in the way of stressing that sincerity matters the most for those working for the group.

“Chances will open to you if you are sincere enough, so we should all begin working for the group with sincere and earnest attitudes,” the chairman stressed to the new employees.

The chairman’s speech before the all officers and staff of the group, stressing a ‘strong resolve and intention to take on new challenges ahead,’ is unusual, sources close to the group said.

They said it may be related to Kumho Industry and Kumho Tire, the two major affiliates of the group put under court management in December 2009, due to the near bankruptcy the two companies faced at the time, along with Asiana Airlines, which also came down with financial difficulties, forcing Park to resign from the top manager’s position then.

For the chairman, the second half of this year is very critical for the group’s operations. As of June 30, the group sold its stake in the Seoul High-speed Bus Terminal for 950 billion won, the last step in the group’s overhaul scheme. The group sold off both Daewoo International and Korea Express, which the group acquired through M&As, and Park had to invest his own funds to save Kumho Industry (220 billion won) and Kumho Tire (110 billion won).

The confident chairman has decided to focus on improving the numbers for the group from July. At a meeting of affiliate CEOs on the first half operations records, Park stressed that now that restructuring is over, each affiliate should work to improve its records. Park spent several hours checking on the first half record projection for each of the group’s affiliates.

Officials of the group said all of the affiliates are getting ready to come in line with the chairman’s call for a new start for the group following the restructuring and the chairman has been checking on each affiliate’s readiness to start the second half operations through various meetings.

Along with the normalization of the group’s operation, the strategy for the second half calls for finding new growth engines, with profits as the foremost priority.

A number of the group’s affiliates have been generating profit in their operations already. Kumho Tire, for example, generated profits for three years in a row; 244.9 billion won in 2009 and 259 billion won in 2010 and this year.