A $2.5B SUV bet sank a Korean chaebol that had grown 18,000%

SsangYong Group traced its origins to 1939 and grew from a textile business into one of South Korea's largest conglomerates. Its cement plant at Donghae became the largest in the world. By 1994, group sales reached ₩14.6 trillion — growth of more than 18,000 percent over twenty years. The group spanned cement, paper, shipping, oil refining, construction, securities, heavy industry and automobiles.

In 1991, chairman Kim Suk-won launched a $2.5 billion expansion into SUVs and four-wheel-drive vehicles through SsangYong Motor. Over the next five years the automotive unit lost ₩505 billion and accumulated ₩3.4 trillion in debt. Cash flow grew so tight that production of the flagship Chairman sedan was delayed by twenty days. The losses were contained while credit was cheap.

The 1997 Asian financial crisis made refinancing impossible. SsangYong began selling: paper to Procter & Gamble in 1997, the motor company to Daewoo the same year, Riverside Cement to Texas Industries in 1998, an oil-refining stake to Saudi Aramco in 1999, a cement share to Taiheiyo Cement in 2000. By 2004 the founding family had lost control of the cement core. The group was formally defunct by 2006. SsangYong Motor passed through Daewoo's own bankruptcy, then through several more owners, before landing at KG Group in 2022.