Winia Electronics, formerly named Daewoo Electronics, is a South Korean home appliances company and a member of South Korean Winia Group. Established in 1971, it has since grown into a global business with more than 64 production sites, research and development and sales centres in more than 40 countries worldwide. Daewoo Electronics Sales UK (DESUK) was established in November 1993. It is the third largest electronics firm of South Korea after Samsung and LG. The company manufactures a range of electronics and home appliances also some automotive electronic equipments and accessories by being the OEM to assist its parent company's motor vehicle subsidiaries Daewoo Motors which is currently divided among US based Korean automotive manufacturer

GM Korea GM Korea Company () is the South Korean subsidiary of American multinational corporation General Motors and the third largest automobile manufacturer in South Korea. GM Korea's roots go back to the former Daewoo Motors vehicle brand, which was sp ...

& Tata Daewoo, the manufacturer of Daewoo Heavy Diesel Commercial vehicles.

Acquisitions after bankruptcy

The company's parent company went through a

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

in 1999 due to the

Asian financial crisis The 1997 Asian financial crisis gripped much of East and Southeast Asia during the late 1990s. The crisis began in Thailand in July 1997 before spreading to several other countries with a ripple effect, raising fears of a worldwide economic meltd ...

. After that, the company was owned completely by a group of creditors. Beside its business of manufacturing consumer goods, it has been contracted by different parties to set up local manufacturing units producing air-conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines. In October 2010, it was announced that the creditor group owning the company is to sell it to an Iran-based electronic company. After years of trying, in January 2013, Dongbu Group (now known as DB Group) agreed to take over Daewoo Electronics for $270 million in order to attain synergies with DB families (Especially DB Inc., DB Hitek and Dongbu Steel). Daewoo Electronics became the family of DB Group by ending its workout status. In March 2018, Dayou Group (now known as Winia Group) acquired Daewoo Electronics from DB Group.

''Dayyani v. the Republic of Korea''

In November 2010, Iranian company Entekhab Industrial Group offered to buy Daewoo Electronics from its creditors for $US529 million. Swedish company

Electrolux Electrolux AB () is a Swedish Multinational corporation, multinational home appliance manufacturer, headquartered in Stockholm. It is consistently ranked the world's second largest appliance maker by units sold, after Whirlpool Corporation, Whi ...

also made an offer of $513 million. Entekhab's offer was accepted, and it paid 57 billion won ($US49.67m) as a deposit, but in June 2011, creditors of Daewoo, led by state-run Korea Asset Management Corp (KAMCO), cancelled the contract and retained the deposit after Entekhab missed a scheduled payment and asked for a discount. KAMCO and other creditors began proceedings to sell the company to

. Entekhab said they viewed the cancellation of the deal as illegal, and said it would take legal action to stop the sale of the company to Electrolux. Entekhab later sought the return of the deposit, but the creditors refused, holding Entekhab responsible for the cancellation. In 2015, a group of investors led by Mohammed Reza Dayyani, the largest shareholder of Entekhab, began arbitration proceedings at the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) seeking compensation from the South Korean government under the Iran-South Korea bilateral investment treaty for the investment deposit that they lost, plus interest. In June 2018, the ICSID ruled in favour of Dayyani. The Korean government appealed to the

High Court of Justice The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal (England and Wales), Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Courts of England and Wales, Senior Cour ...

in England, which in December 2019 denied the appeal. As a result of the ruling, the South Korean government must pay $62.9 million (73.0 billion won) to Dayyani and the other plaintiffs.

Resources

References

{{Portal, Companies Daewoo Electronics companies of South Korea Home appliance brands Home appliance manufacturers of South Korea Vacuum cleaner manufacturers Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning companies Manufacturing companies based in Seoul Electronics companies established in 1971 Multinational companies headquartered in South Korea South Korean brands South Korean companies established in 1971