[Featured Stock] Hanwha Ocean Rises Over 6% on News of Group's Acquisition of Australian Shipbuilder

Hanwha Group's Hanwha Ocean shares are on the rise following news that the group is pursuing the acquisition of an Australian shipbuilding and defense company that owns a shipyard in the United States.

As of 9:25 a.m. on the 18th, Hanwha Ocean was trading at 81,600 KRW, up 5,300 KRW (6.95%) from the previous trading day.

Earlier, Hanwha Systems and Hanwha Aerospace announced their participation in a paid-in capital increase of their Australian subsidiary, HAA No.1 PTY LTD, to advance their "global market expansion." According to industry sources, Hanwha Group is expected to pursue the acquisition of shares in Austal, headquartered in Australia, through its Australian subsidiary.

On the same day, NH Investment & Securities upgraded Hanwha Ocean's target price from 67,000 KRW to 90,000 KRW, stating that "the order intake for LNG carriers and offshore plants will accelerate, expanding the earnings improvement cycle." The firm maintained its buy rating.

Jeong Yeon-seung, a researcher at NH Investment & Securities, said, "We have raised the operating profit estimates for 2025?2027 due to the accelerated profitability improvement in the merchant ship sector and increased the target price-to-book ratio (PBR) by 20% to 4.0 times." He added, "The valuation premium reflects expectations of prolonged earnings improvement. Based on the current order backlog, earnings are expected to improve through 2027, and considering future LNG carrier orders in the merchant ship sector, large FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading) units in the offshore sector, and domestic and international naval ship orders in the special ship sector, earnings improvement is likely to continue beyond 2028."

Researcher Jeong explained, "In the special ship sector, there is potential for submarine orders from the Middle East in 2026 and Canada in 2027, and considering the construction period, earnings growth is possible for five years following the orders." He also emphasized, "For U.S. naval ships, orders and earnings improvements are possible through two channels: new ship orders and the shipyard in the Philippines in which we have equity investment." He stressed, "Special ships are expected to see earnings improvement through 2030, which is a factor that raises the long-term growth rate."