Tycoon who placed "Lucky" US wind power bet intends to increase investment

Gim Seong-gon, who founded the first wind power company after recognizing that his venture manufacturing chimneys for fossil fuel facilities was running out of time, was going to make his next startling move.

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Gim made the decision to enter the US while US President Donald Trump was in government despite his dismissal of climate change as a "expensive hoax" throughout his four years in office. His CS Wind Corp. executed its largest-ever investment that June when it paid $150 million to acquire the largest wind-tower manufacturing factory in the world in Colorado.

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The following year, President Joe Biden signed a comprehensive tax and climate plan into law that, according to Gim, will result in an additional $1.5 billion in tax revenue for his company over the ensuing ten years.

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Gim stated in a rare interview in Seoul, "I was lucky." Yet "it was obvious to me that the US market would grow demand."

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The 69-year-old South Korean businessman now intends to invest an additional $600 million over the following five years in order to double the facility's capacity. Because of Biden's plan, he forecasts that US demand will nearly double during that time. According to BloombergNEF, wind power generated more than 40% of all renewable energy in the US in 2022, greatly outpacing solar.

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Yoon Cho, an equity research analyst at UBS Securities, stated, "The sector is investing at a time when there are few American wind-tower producers with mass production capability, and the long-term demand for wind power is expanding faster than we had anticipated." "But, with substantial investments, we would obviously have to keep an eye on the timing and the financing."

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Gim has a reputation for acting unexpectedly. When he made an early investment in wind power twenty years ago, he was the owner of a construction company that also produced construction components and supplies, including chimney for coal and diesel facilities. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, his and his family's investment in CS Wind increased to over $1 billion in 2021. 

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Gim remembered from his new office in the affluent Gangnam section of the South Korean city, "I could sense fossil energy assets would soon diminish." It was clear that a change was necessary.

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Gim's decision and the riches it produced demonstrate the rising significance of wind power as the globe moves toward renewable energy. His most recent investment strategy confirms his conviction that the industry still has capacity to expand.

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Although CS Wind's revenues last year set a record, operating profit dropped to its lowest level since 2018 as capital spending increased. Gim stated that he aims to obtain orders for up to $1.7 billion this year, an increase of more than 80% from the previous year.

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With the $65,000 he earned working at a building supply company in Saudi Arabia after moving there, the businessman established his own construction company there in 1984. It quickly grew to produce building supplies and components.

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In 2003, he started a wind energy company, which he eventually renamed CS Wind. CS Wind is a significant supplier to international turbine manufacturers like Vestas Wind Systems A/S, Siemens Energy AG, and GE Renewable Energy. The company now has manufacturing facilities in seven nations. In 2022, excluding China, its wind towers—typically tubular structures that house the rotors and nacelle—were employed in about 15% of new wind generating facilities worldwide.

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The International Energy Agency predicts that as nations rush to achieve carbon neutrality, renewables will account for the majority of the expansion in the global electricity supply in the following three years.

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As a result of broader supply worries relating to Covid, CS Wind's shares have plummeted from a high in 2021, bringing the value of the family's investment back below $1 billion. Their ownership, though, is still valued at $914 million, per the Bloomberg wealth index.

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Nothing at all in my life was harder than trying to make ends meet in my twenties by working many jobs, Gim remarked from a room adorned with works by well-known Korean painters. "I only could sleep four hours each night when it was extremely bad."