SEOUL– A mid-sized builder and a consortium led by a property developer submitted preliminary bids to buy a controlling stake in Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co. from an investment fund under the state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB), people familiar with the matter said Friday.

The bidders are Jungheung Construction and the consortium made of DS Networks, a property developer, and SkyLake, a leading technology private equity firm, they said.

Lead manager Bank of America Merrill Lynch received the bids from the two prospective buyers for a 50.75 percent stake in Daewoo E&C held by KDB Investment Co., a private equity firm controlled by the state-run lender, they said.

The stake up for sale in Daewoo Engineering is valued at around 2 trillion won (US$1.7 billion).

KDB Investment reportedly plans to pick a preferred bidder in July and complete the sale of Daewoo E&C by the end of the year.

KDB Investment did not make any official comment on the bids.

In 2018, Hoban Construction Co. was selected as a preferred bidder to buy a controlling stake in Daewoo E&C, but the mid-sized builder later dropped its bid to buy the bigger rival due to losses in Daewoo E&C’s overseas businesses.

In April, Daewoo E&C reported its first-quarter net profit of 147.9 billion won, up 138.9 percent from a year earlier. The builder’s operating profit nearly doubled to 229.4 billion won in the January-March period.

Source: Yonhap News Agency