이 기사는 2022년 04월 22일 08:08 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

HD Hyundai, formerly known as Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings, is stepping up efforts to improve its environment, social, governance (ESG) performance after Chung Ki-sun, grandson of the late Hyundai Group founder Chung Ju-young, took the helm of the company earlier this year.

Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) on Tuesday granted the company a BBB rating at this year’s ESG Ratings assessment. MSCI ESG Ratings provides an overall company ESG rating on a seven point scale ranging from AAA to CCC. A BBB rating is an average among 41 companies in the oil & gas refining, marketing, transportation & storage industry.

HD Hyundai received a B rating in 2018 and has improved the rating over the past four years. The B is a laggard rating, the second lowest after CCC. It received a BB in 2019 and maintained the same rating until 2021. This year’s BBB is the highest rating it has received so far.

HD Hyundai was not an ESG leader on any of the key issues that MSCI evaluated for the industry. It was an average on corporate governance, corporate behavior, carbon emissions and opportunities in clean tech. The company was a laggard on toxic emissions and waste and health and safety.

It is worth noting that assessments on the company by a foreign rating agency and a domestic agency are narrowing the gap. The company’s ESG rating by MSCI hovered around BB rating over the past three years while Korea Corporate Governance Service (KCGS) assigned an A rating to the company last year.

Hyundai Heavy Industries Group has accelerated ESG management efforts since early last year. The group appointed Ka Sam-hyun, president and CEO of Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (KSOE), as the group's chief sustainability officer (CSO) and formed ESG Working Group Committee, in a bid to implement ESG management across all subsidiaries and affiliates of the group.

The restructuring efforts of the holding company have helped its corporate governance rating to improve. The group completed its restructuring process by establishing shipbuilding intermediary holding company, KSOE, and construction intermediary holding company Hyundai Genuine.

The rating upgrade was also helped by the generational shift in the leadership of Korea’s largest shipbuilder.

Chung has secured stakes in HD Hyundai, which sits at the peak of the group’s governance structure since 2018. He was appointed as Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings’ co-CEO and KSOE’s CEO last year, signaling the group’s shift to an owner-management system.

At the Consumer Electronics Show 2022 in January, Chung laid out the company’s vision to become a “future builder,” presenting autonomous navigation, liquid hydrogen and intelligent robotics as the group`s innovative technologies.

At last month’s general meeting, Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings shareholders approved a plan to change its name to HD Hyundai and Chung was named to the group’s board of directors.

HD Hyundai aims to increase its corporate value by accelerating its four major growth engine businesses - future shipment, hydrogen fuel cells, digital and healthcare - and support its subsidiaries’ new businesses such as clean hydrogen and white bio. (Reporting by Seo-young Kim)