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Hanjin Shipping asset sale under way

The ‘for sale’ sign has officially been placed up at Korean line Hanjin Shipping today after the local court approved a plan to sell off part of the company’s assets, Korea Herald reports.

Sources told the Korean newspaper that the court has approved the sale of its Asia-US route along with manpower, vessels, and 10 overseas operations. No indicative price has been determined as yet.

Seoul Central District Court is now fielding interest from potential buyers until October 28 and bidders will be require to submit proposals by November 4. It is expected that the sale is to be completed by the end of November, allowing time for due diligence.

Hanjin Shipping went into court receivership at the end of August after its creditors decided to end support for the line. At the end of the second quarter this year, Hanjin had total debts of $4.2bn.

Commenting on the news, Lars Jensen from Copenhagen’s SeaIntelligence Consulting told Splash: “Apart from the vessels that might come with the sale, it is somewhat difficult to see which other parts of that sale would have much value. The Korea Herald article refers to the sale including personel and operations systems. However, any carrier interested in the personnel could simply reach out to the people in question and offer them a job. All carriers already have systems, hence hard to see the value there. And in terms of customers, these have already shifted to other carriers.”

Grant Rowles

Grant spent nine years at Informa Group based in London, Sydney, Hong Kong and Singapore. He gained strong management experience in publishing, conferences and awards schemes in the shipping and legal areas, working on a number of titles including Lloyd's List. In 2009 Grant joined Seatrade responsible for the commercial development of Seatrade’s Asia products. In 2012, with Sam Chambers, he co-founded Asia Shipping Media.
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