The NOROO Group made a strategic investment in an automobile paint production and sales company called KNT (Shanghai KINLITA Chemical Co., Ltd.), located in Shanghai, and KNT was listed in CHASDAQ on May 31. 

KNT, which signed an agreement on equity sharing and joint technology development with the NOROO Group in September 2007, is China’s only privately-run business in the high-functional automobile paint market. KNT is showing extremely rapid growth, with an annual average growth rate of 30%, as a result of the synergetic strategies with the NOROO Group, even amid competition with globally-renowned multinational companies in the Chinese market, which has become the world’s largest automobile market. 

Following its listing on the CHASDAQ, KNT is planning to acquire a public equity participation fund worth about KRW 80 billion, and, as a result, the NOROO Group is now able to further strengthen its market expansion strategies, including M&As for business in the Chinese market. Even though KNT has demonstrated outstanding performance with its rapid listing on the CHASDAQ, which was achieved in the record time of just 11 months after its application for IPO, the company aims to acquire the capacity to compete with multinational paint companies in China within five years via continuous cooperation with the NOROO Group.