Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co., Ltd. (HDEC; Korean: 현대건설 주식회사) is a major construction company in South Korea. The company was founded by Chung Ju-yung in 1947 as the Hyundai Civil Works Company and was a major component of the Hyundai Group. Hyundai Construction and Hyundai Engineering merged in 1999.[1]
Hyundai Construction played a major role in the importation of Korean laborers to the Middle East to work on construction projects in the 1970s and 1980s. In the decade following 1975, Hyundai signed their first contract in the region for construction of a shipyard for the Iranian Navy near Bandar-e Abbas. 800,000 Koreans went to work in Saudi Arabia and another 25,000 went to Iran; Hyundai was their largest employer.[2][3]
Under creditors' management with Korea Exchange Bank as the largest creditor, Hyundai Group was split into several entities from 2001 to 2006.[4] As of March 2007, HDEC is the main shareholder of Hyundai Merchant Marine, which is the de facto holding company of Hyundai Group. Hyundai Group and Hyundai Motor Group (another spin-off from Hyundai Group) are both vying to purchase HDEC.[4]
In 2011, Hyundai Motor Group became the new owner of Hyundai Engineering & Construction. This was determined by Korean banks' decision after the company won a bidding war against the Korean Merchant Marine.
^Seok, Hyunho (1991). "Korean migrant workers to the Middle East". In Gunatilleke, Godfrey (ed.). Migration to the Arab World: Experience of Returning Migrants. United Nations University Press. pp. 56–103. ISBN9280807455.
^Steers, Richard M. (1999). Made in Korea: Chung Ju Yung and the Rise of Hyundai. United Kingdom: Routledge. pp. 109–117. ISBN978-0-415-92050-6.
