Samsung Group’s Shipbuilding and Engineering Arms to Merge

Samsung Heavy Industries will absorb Samsung Engineering by issuing 236 new shares for every 100 Samsung Engineering shares, according to the merger plan approved by the boards of both companies and disclosed in a regulatory filing on Monday. That means that Samsung Heavy, one of the world’s largest shipbuilders, will issue 94 million new shares, valuing the deal at 2.5 trillion won, or $2.4 billion.

Samsung’s efforts to merge affiliates with related portfolios has quickened since Lee Kun-hee, 72, the patriarch of the group’s controlling family, was hospitalized in May after a heart attack.

The exact condition of Mr. Lee, chairman of the conglomerate’s crown jewel, Samsung Electronics, is a closely guarded secret. So are the family’s plans for how control of the group will be divided and transferred to Mr. Lee’s son, Lee Jae-yong, called Jay Y. Lee, and two daughters, Lee Boo-jin and Lee Seo-hyun.

Although partly an effort to become more nimble, Samsung’s restructuring is widely seen as an attempt to overcome the uncertainty that the failing health of Mr. Lee, who led Samsung’s growth into a global brand, might cause for the conglomerate. It also was seen as an effort to help his son, the vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, inherit control.

Samsung recently announced plans for the initial public offerings of Cheil Industries, formerly Samsung Everland, and the technology company Samsung SDS. Analysts said the stock listings would generate cash for Mr. Lee’s children to help increase stakes vital to maintaining control of the group and to pay inheritance taxes on his wealth, including his Samsung stakes.

Cheil Industries recently spun off its industrial materials operations, which are being merged with Samsung SDI, a battery maker. Samsung Everland, which effectively was a holding company for the entire group, with the Lee family as its controlling shareholders, changed its name to Cheil Industries after taking over Cheil’s fashion business. The textile brand name Cheil, which means No. 1 in Korean, holds special meaning for the Lee family because it was an early building block of what is now Samsung.

Samsung Heavy and Samsung Engineering had combined revenue of about 25 trillion won, or $24 billion, last year. The merged company, which may adopt a new name, is aiming for 40 trillion won in sales by 2020, the two companies said in a news release.

“The merger will enable the two companies to emerge as a world-class engineering, procurement and construction firm,” Samsung Heavy said in the release.