According to foreign media sources, Hapag-Lloyd has expressed interest in acquiring South Korea's flagship liner company Hanshin Shipping (HMM) HM, making it the first foreign entity to participate.Just three days before The bidding closed, sources in South Korea's securities and investment banking industry told The Loadstar that Hapag-Lloyd had asked Samsung Securities for a prospectus and that the firm was handling the sale of a majority stake in HMM.
A spokesman said: "Hapag-Lloyd is always looking into the possibility of developing the business further. In this context, we are also exploring whether investing in other liner businesses can play a stronger role in the global shipping industry." Last month, state-controlled South Korean bank KDB and South Korean Marine commercial company KOBC launched a tender to sell 57.87 percent of HMM, which is controlled by the government after a debt-for-equity swap in 2016. After a virus-driven shipping boom brought record earnings to HMM, it was decided it was time to wean the company off state support. At present, five South Korean companies are known to have submitted or are considering bids. They are LX Pantos, SM Group, Harim Group, Dongwon Food Group and Global Sae-a Group of South Korea's LG Group.
The estimated cost of M's stake is between $3.8 billion and $7.6 billion. With $7.38 billion in cash and $16.6 billion in retained earnings as of June 30, Hapag-Lloyd is financially stronger than the South Korean bidder. Last month, however, South Korean sources told The Loadstar that the government was "reluctant" to sell HMM to a foreign entity. Linerlytica analyst Tan Hua Joo added: "It would not be politically feasible for HMM to be sold to a non-Korean entity, especially after it has received state support in the past.
Hapag-lloyd's last M&A activity was in 2017, when it bought Arabian steamship UASC, and three years before that it bought Chilean South American steamship CSAV.
