Hyundai started out as a construction company in 1947, and founder Chung Ju-Yung and his extended family soon controlled a powerful South Korean business empire consisting of some 50 companies with interests in shipbuilding, automobiles, elevators and securities, among others.
Huge debts forced the car firm to lay off 10, 000 workers, and the group was eventually bailed out in a government-brokered deal in which it was divided into several parts, each run by a different son of its founder, the late Chung Ju-yung, who was forced to resign.