Harim Acquires HMM for 6.4 Trillion Won... Jumps to 13th Place in Business Rankings

San-eun Announces Preferred Negotiation Partner
HMM Share Sale Contract for 57.9% Within the Year

Harim Group has been selected as the preferred bidder for the acquisition of HMM. Once Pan Ocean, the acquisition entity of Harim Group, completes the acquisition of HMM, Harim will leap into the top 10 in the business world rankings.

On the 18th, the Korea Development Bank and the Korea Ocean Business Corporation are expected to announce that they have selected Harim Group as the preferred bidder for the sale of HMM.

Harim Group Headquarters Building.
Photo by Asia Economy DB

The number of shares for sale of HMM is 398.79 million shares held by the creditors' group. The acquisition price is reported to be around 6.4 trillion KRW.

In the main bidding held last month by the Korea Development Bank and the Korea Ocean Business Corporation for the sale of HMM, Dongwon Group and Harim Group participated in the final bidding. Harim Group, which entered the acquisition battle by forming a consortium with private equity fund (PEF) operator JKL Partners, is said to have narrowly outbid Dongwon Group's offer.

The seller was expected to select the preferred bidder by early this month, but the announcement was delayed as Harim presented several demands regarding acquisition conditions. It is reported that Harim has withdrawn all demands related to the shareholder agreement that had caused controversy with the seller.

The Harim Group and JKL Partners consortium requested the seller to defer the conversion of perpetual bonds into shares for three years, but the seller maintained that this was not possible.

Meanwhile, based on this year's Fair Trade Commission statistics, Harim Group ranks 27th in the business world with assets of 17 trillion KRW. HMM, which Harim aims to acquire, has assets of 25.8 trillion KRW, 8.8 trillion KRW more than Harim, ranking 19th.

If the Harim Group and JKL Partners consortium acquires HMM, the combined assets of Harim and HMM will increase to 42.8 trillion KRW. This would surpass CJ Group (40.7 trillion KRW) and rank 13th, following KT (45.9 trillion KRW).