Showing just how keen he is to take his country’s most prized shipping asset, Woo Oh-hyun, the chairman of SM Group, has increased his company’s shareholding in HMM, South Korea’s flagship carrier which has been put up for sale by state-backed creditors.
An SM Group subsidiary has recently bought another 500,000 shares in HMM, increasing the group’s holdings from 6.56% to 6.66%, cementing its position as the third largest shareholder in the line after state-run entities Korea Development Bank (KDB) and Korea Ocean Business Corp. (KOBC).
HMM, formerly Hyundai Merchant Marine, was taken over by KDB in 2016 after hitting severe financial difficulty. The bank has invited bids to buy the line out with the aim of sealing the transaction by the end of this year.
“Considering my age of 72, I have decided to buy HMM as my last mission — to reinvigorate our nation’s shipping industry by making us Asia’s No.1 shipping company,” Woo told the Korea Economic Daily last month. SM Group runs containerline SM Line as well as a number of other businesses.
Harim Group, which controls Pan Ocean, has also readied a bid for HMM, as has LX Holdings and Dongwon Group, Korean firms with interests in logistics.
