The major creditors of financially troubled Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction will put the shipbuilding group up for sale next month.
Hanjin Heavy announced on Monday that its main creditor, Korea Development Bank (KDB), has invited interested parties to submit letters of intent to join in preliminary bidding by October 26 for all or part of the 83.45% stake of the shipbuilder.
The stake is owned by seven financial institutions from South Korea and the Philippines. KDB is looking to sell at least a 63.44% stake in Hanjin Heavy.
KDB has appointed accounting firm Samil PricewaterhouseCoopers and its mergers and acquisitions consulting team as managers for the stake sale.
Hanjin Heavy filed for bankruptcy in early 2019 and it completed a debt-to-equity swap scheme with KDB-led creditors later in the year with an aim to normalise operations at the yard.
Founded in 1937, Hanjin Heavy is the oldest shipyard in South Korea, and once a top 10 yard in the world. The shipbuilding group’s major assets currently include one yard in Busan and a yard in Subic Bay of Philippines.
Another two mid-sized South Korean yards, Daesun Shipbuilding and STX Offshore & Shipbuilding, have also been put up for sale but have not been able to find new investors yet.
