His 51% stake in the company he owns with his family is valued at $ 1.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Gim Seong-gon ran a steel factory in the late 1980s, when he was suddenly fascinated by wind power. This South Korean native saw growth potential in this field and decided to get down to business.
It was a good decision. Following an injection of capital from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., his company, CS Wind Corp., has become the world’s largest manufacturer of wind towers. Stocks have rallied in the past four years, the price has quintupled in 2020 alone, and expectations are high for even greater growth with the change of administration in Washington.
At 67, Gim, the son of a farmer, is now one of the richest people in South Korea. His 51% stake in the company he owns with his family is valued at $ 1.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
“Gim was nimble in identifying growth potential globally,” said Han Byung-hwa, an analyst at Seoul-based Eugene Investment & Securities Co.. “The sector has grown faster than other traditional industries.”
Goldman investment
Gim made the switch to renewables in 2003, establishing CS Wind’s first wind tower factory in Vietnam to take advantage of cheaper labor. Five years later, his company received a 47.2 billion won ($ 43 million) investment from Goldman Sachs, helping it expand to seven countries.
CS Wind now operates plants in countries such as Malaysia, China and the United Kingdom and sells its wind towers to companies such as Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy SA, General Electric Co. and Vestas Wind Systems A / S. The company plans to build factories in the United States, where newly elected president Joe Biden has pledged to prioritize suppliers with local facilities.
“Running a business is about constantly finding new goals,” Gim said in an interview with a company magazine in 2014. “When you achieve a goal, you have to look for a new one. This is how I have run the business. ” A company spokesman declined to comment on Gim’s fortune.
The turn to green energy has helped improve prospects for companies that make everything from electric vehicles to batteries to solar panels. Investments in low-carbon energy projects and technologies doubled in the past decade to $ 501.3 billion last year and nearly two-thirds in renewable energy, primarily solar and wind, according to a BloombergNEF report this month. .
Follow the news of El Espectador on Google News
