South Korea’s Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) has announced that it has decided to buy a 20% in a terminals in Long Beach and Seattle. It is paying $15.6m for the slice of Total Terminals International (TTI) and equipment-leasing firm HTEC.
HMM will become the second largest stakeholder in TTI after MSC upon completion of the deal, in what has been a long drawn out deal to take over compatriot’s Hanjin stake in the terminal.
In December, HMM paired with MSC to jointly bid for a 54% stake in the terminal, which was held by bankrupt Korean line Hanjin Shipping, later HMM pulled out from the consortium.
On December 20, MSC, which already held 46% stake of the terminal company, reached a deal with Hanjin Shipping and acquired the remaining 54% stake of the terminal.
HMM is not responsible for TTI’s debts as MSC will stand surety for TTI’s loans and lease and HMM will receive the same port tariff rates with MSC, the Korean line said in a release.
“TTI’s handling volumes will dramatically increase, as we strengthen Asia Pacific services through strategic cooperation with 2M beginning of April,” HMM said in a release. 2M is the vessel sharing agreement between MSC and Maersk which HMM now has a slot sharing agreement with.
