South Korea’s Minister of Oceans and Fisheries Kang Do-hyung told journalists at a New Year briefing that he does not believe there will be a “winner’s curse” in selecting the Harim Group-JKL Partners consortium as the preferred bidder for the country’s flagship carrier HMM.
HMM’s largest shareholders, the state-controlled Korea Development Bank and Korea Ocean Business Corporation, chose the Harim-JKL consortium over Dongwon LOEX as the preferred bidder on 18 December 2023.
The company came under the state’s control after a debt-for-equity swap in 2016, resulting in a substantial dilution of the founding Hyundai Group’s stakes.
Speaking at a gathering of shipping executives on 4 January, Kang said, “As much as we invested taxpayers’ monies in HMM, we will push for the acquisition of the company. Negotiations with Harim-JKL are ongoing and we will look into it carefully.”
Harim Group, a poultry processor, had also acquired South Korea’s largest dry bulk shipping business, Pan Ocean, also with JKL’s help, in 2015.
However, HMM’s staff union continues to be skeptical about Harim’s fund-raising ability and its capacity to take the company forward.
Although Harim chairman Kim Hong-kuk asserted that his business has secured the financing, HMM’s union is demanding details about how the monies will be raised.
Pan Ocean CEO Ahn Joong-ho, who was also present at the New Year event, dismissed talk that there are no synergies between his company and HMM. The latter has a smaller bulk carrier fleet, numbering 10 vessels, while Pan Ocean has about 50 bulk carriers.
HMM, the eighth largest liner operator, operates 70 vessels of 783,732 TEU, while Pan Ocean is ranked 76th in container shipping, with just nine ships of 10,781 TEU, all in intra-Asia services
Ahn said, “Pan Ocean is also engaged in the container business as well as bulk. Concerns about lack of synergy are nonsensical.”
Martina Li
Asia Correspondent
