Hyundai Wia sells defence unit to Hyundai Rotem for KRW 358bn to fund robots and TMS

Hyundai Wia, the Hyundai Motor Group parts maker that also builds factory and parking robots, said in regulatory filings on Oct 19 that it will sell its defence business to affiliate Hyundai Rotem for KRW 358.4 billion and put the money into thermal management systems and robotics. The board approved the deal the same day; shareholders vote at an extraordinary meeting on Nov 27 and the transfer is due to close by Mar 31, 2027. [Company profile](/companies/hyundai-wia).

The sale matters less for its size than for what it says about where a Korean auto group now expects robot revenue to come from. Hyundai Wia's own 2035 plan, filed as a fair-disclosure notice and set out in an investor presentation, gives robotics a growth rate and a mass-production line for parking robots. The question is whether a parts supplier can turn that into a business.

The price is the top of the appraiser's range, minus the land

The filing values the defence unit's operations at KRW 480 billion, then deducts KRW 117 billion of land and buildings that Hyundai Wia keeps and will lease to Hyundai Rotem, and KRW 4.6 billion of net asset adjustments. That leaves the contract price of KRW 358,386 million, payable in cash at closing. EY Hanyoung, hired because the buyer is a related party, put the unit's value at KRW 388.6 billion to 483.3 billion using a discounted cash flow model, so the KRW 480 billion operating value sits 96.5% of the way up that range by MEKAWIRE's calculation. The presentation says the price equals 9.5 times EBITDA against a domestic defence-parts peer average it gives as 8.4 times in one place and 8.6 times for eight companies in another.

The unit is small inside Hyundai Wia. It booked KRW 393.1 billion of revenue in 2025, 4.6% of the company's KRW 8.48 trillion, and held 5.0% of assets. The price is 0.91 times that revenue. The company said the business needs heavy reinvestment in old plants and new weapons programmes and that, as a parts maker in an industry organised around prime contractors, it has limited room to grow.

Robotics gets a growth target and a parking-robot line

The filing sets a 2035 target of KRW 14.8 trillion in revenue with 27% from new businesses. The presentation splits today's roughly KRW 8.8 trillion into about KRW 8 trillion of mobility parts, about KRW 0.4 trillion of defence and about KRW 0.4 trillion of thermal management and robotics combined, and plans KRW 10.8 trillion and KRW 4.0 trillion for those two groups in 2035. That is a tenfold rise for the new businesses, or 29.2% a year over nine years by MEKAWIRE's calculation. The deck labels robotics growth at 19.8% a year from 2026 to 2035 and thermal management at 40.4%; at the stated robotics rate, robot revenue in 2035 would be about 5.1 times the 2026 level.

The robotics plan has four lines: a wider mobile-robot portfolio, logistics fleet control and software, a mass-production line for parking robots, and robot automation for Hyundai's "AX factory" plants. Hyundai Wia's site lists logistics AMRs and AGVs, collaborative robots, articulated robots, parking robots and service robots, sold mostly as part of smart-factory and logistics installations. Planned spending to 2035 includes about KRW 1.8 trillion of company-wide R&D, about KRW 1 trillion for global plants and about KRW 0.9 trillion for new businesses; the sale price alone covers 39.8% of that last figure.

How the deal still could change

Shareholders who oppose the transfer can ask Hyundai Wia to buy their shares at KRW 51,811 between Nov 27 and Dec 16. If those claims exceed KRW 140 billion, 39.1% of the price, the board may cancel the deal. The record date for the meeting is Nov 4. Regulatory approvals and staff transfers are also closing conditions, and the price will move with net assets between the Dec 31, 2025 valuation date and closing.