Chairman Chung Mong-hyuk: "The Next 50 Years Will Make Us a 100-Year Company"... Hyundai Corporation Group Expands Manufacturing and Global Reach

[Financial News] Hyundai Corporation Group has unveiled a growth strategy to mark its 50th anniversary by integrating trading and manufacturing and developing global hubs into "second headquarters." Over the next five years, the group plans to continue acquiring mid-sized manufacturing companies at home and abroad. It also aims to establish 10 global headquarters across the world, each with independent business and investment functions, as it seeks to become a "100-year company."
Hyundai Corporation Group said on the 30th that it held an event marking its 50th anniversary at Grand Hyatt Seoul on the 29th, with approximately 600 employees from Korea and abroad, as well as global staff, in attendance.
Held ahead of the company's founding anniversary on October 1, the event was organized to review the group's 50-year history and achievements and share its direction for a new leap forward over the next 50 years. The program included a video chronicling the group's history, a commemorative address by Chairman Chung Mong-hyuk, congratulatory videos from Korea and abroad, an AI-recreated address by Honorary Chairman Chung Ju-yung, and the announcement of the group's future vision.
The event also featured a special congratulatory video from founder Chung Ju-yung, restored using AI technology. In the video, Honorary Chairman Chung Ju-yung expressed his gratitude to the employees who traveled the world to find new opportunities and built 50 years of growth at a time when information and experience were limited, based on his founding philosophy of "earning outside to enrich within."
He went on to emphasize Hyundai's spirit of challenge and pioneering, saying, "What matters is whether you tried again amid countless failures. If there is no road, make one as you go." He also offered a message of support, saying he would continue to watch over Hyundai Corporation's future.
Established in 1976 under Honorary Chairman Chung Ju-yung's philosophy of building the nation through exports, Hyundai Corporation, then a general trading company, grew into Korea's leading general trading company by opening new markets around the world as Hyundai Group's export arm. It opened the way for overseas resource development through the Drayton coal mine in Australia and the Marib oil field in Yemen. The company also contributed to Korea's trade history through pioneering northern trade, ranking first among individual Korean companies in exports for five consecutive years, and becoming the first Korean company to receive an Export Tower award for $25 billion in exports.
The company later endured the Asian financial crisis and a workout program, but returned to the Hyundai fold in 2009. When Chung Mong-hyuk took office as chairman in 2010, it entered an era of a second founding. Following the separation of affiliates in 2016, it relaunched as another independently managed group within the broader Hyundai family. In 2021, it unified its Korean corporate name under Hyundai Corporation, which was already more widely recognized overseas, establishing a new identity beyond that of a general trading company. It has continued to grow, setting record-high operating profits for four consecutive years.
In his commemorative address, Chairman Chung Mong-hyuk said, "Our past 50 years were not simply a period of growth; they were a time when we changed and overcame many difficulties." He emphasized, "Many companies disappeared into the pages of history, but we changed ourselves and built the Hyundai Corporation of today."
He added, "The flexibility and resilience accumulated in that process are our greatest assets." He continued, "The company I want to build is not one that ranks first temporarily, but a first-class company that can change and grow on its own in any environment and remain sustainable for a long time."
To achieve this, Chairman Chung Mong-hyuk presented two growth directions for the next 50 years. The first is the "integration of trading and manufacturing." Hyundai Corporation plans to leverage its existing trading capabilities and global network to expand more deeply and diversely into manufacturing across the value chain. It aims to evolve into a business model in which its trading and manufacturing capabilities are organically integrated. Following last year's acquisition of auto parts maker LUCINOVA, the company plans to continue pursuing acquisitions of mid-sized manufacturing companies in Korea and abroad within the next five years. In the long term, it will also seek to acquire large manufacturing companies with influence in global markets.
The second is "NEST functional innovation." NEST is Hyundai Corporation's global regional collaboration system, which has been in operation since 2021. It was introduced to group overseas offices by region and jointly identify business opportunities. The system has evolved beyond the former branch-centered operating model. Offices now collaborate both within and across regions to discover new businesses and share the results.
Hyundai Corporation plans to take this model a step further by developing each NEST into a "second headquarters" that independently identifies business opportunities, makes investments and grows, much like the Seoul headquarters. Within three years, it plans to turn Singapore in the Southeast Asia NEST and Los Angeles (LA) in the North America NEST into global headquarters. Within five years, Frankfurt am Main in the Europe NEST and Tokyo in the Japan NEST are also expected to become global headquarters. The company will then establish a system in which 10 NESTs worldwide—including those in China, Australia, Africa and the Middle East, South Asia, the CIS and Latin America—each perform headquarters functions. This represents a transition from the existing system of one headquarters in Seoul and numerous overseas offices to a new global management structure in which 10 global headquarters are connected and jointly identify business opportunities and pursue growth.
Chairman Chung Mong-hyuk said, "If the past 50 years were a history of challenge and pioneering, the next 50 years will be a time to turn the dream of becoming a 100-year company into reality." He added, "Because this is not a path that any one person can travel with their ideas and strength alone, we will open Hyundai Corporation's next 50 years by taking on challenges and overcoming them together."

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