Dongwon Group and a Harim Group-JKL consortium are poised to battle it out for South Korea’s largest container shipping line, HMM. The two groups were short-listed as final candidates after fellow contender LX Group dropped its plan for the bid, and a preferred negotiator for this deal is expected to be decided by the end of this month.
Qualitative metrics
Sellers Korea Development Bank (KDB) and Korea Ocean Business Corporation (KOBC) intend to evaluate not only the price but qualitative metrics, such as the candidate’s funding plans.
6 trillion
According to sources on Thursday, among the current candidates, there is one bidder that has offered a bid surpassing the sellers’ anticipated selling price, set at over the 6 trillion won ($4.61 billion) range. KDB and KOBC calculated the anticipated selling price based on the weighted average of HMM’s stock prices over the past 30 trading days.
“A valid competition took place in the bidding, and a preferred negotiator will be promptly selected to sign a stock purchase agreement within 2023,” KDB said after Samsung Securities, the lead manager for the HMM sale, closed the bid application.
Reports suggest that the sellers calculated the anticipated selling price based on the weighted average stock price of HMM over the recent 30 trading days.
Potential buyers have assessed that a bid of around 5 trillion won would be suitable due to the remaining perpetual bonds held by the sellers, totaling 336 million shares. If all these are converted into stocks, the stake percentage of the targeted 398.79 million shares for sale would decrease from 57.9 percent to 39 percent.
Harim Group has emphasised that it could grow into a leading national flag shipper encompassing containers and bulk by acquiring HMM. Meanwhile, Dongwon Group has highlighted the potential acquisition’s ability to transform itself into an integrated logistics company.
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Source : Pulse news
