Hyundai Rotem

History

As part of the government-led restructuring in the wake of 1997 Asian financial crisis, Korea Rolling Stock Corporation (KOROS, Korean: 한국철도차량 주식회사) was founded on 1 July 1999 as a result of the merger between three major rolling stock divisions of Hanjin Heavy Industries, Daewoo Heavy Industries, and Hyundai Precision Industry.

In 2000, Hyundai Precision Industry sold its defence and plant businesses to KOROS, effectively making KOROS an affiliate company of Hyundai Motor Company. Hyundai Precision Industry was renamed as Hyundai Mobis in the same year. In August 2001, in an aftermath of Daewoo Group's dissolution, Daewoo Heavy Industries agreed to sell its stake in KOROS to Hyundai Mobis, which let the latter become the majority shareholder of the company. KOROS subsequently changed its name to Rotem Company (Korean: 주식회사 로템), where "Rotem" is known to be short for "Railroading Technology System", on 1 January 2002.

In 2006, Morgan Stanley became a minority shareholder by buying shares from Hyundai Motor Company and participating in Rotem's rights offering, until 2018. In a separate event in the same year, Hanjin Heavy Industries sold its stake in Rotem to Morgan Stanley, leaving Hyundai Motor Group the only remaining pre-1999 merger corporate shareholder. Rotem Company added "Hyundai" (현대; 現代) to its name on 3 December 2007 to reflect its current affiliation. Its shares are listed in the Korea Exchange in October 2013.

While Hyundai Rotem officially designated its founding date as 1 July 1977, which was also the time when "Hyundai Precision Industry" was officially named, in certain of its publications, it tried to trace its roots to the rolling stock business of other pre-1999 merger entities, which started building rolling stock since 1964.