[Market Focus] Hanwha Ocean: U.S. Shipbuilding Market Entry Value... Earnings Growth Potential in Spotlight

Hanwha Ocean is showing strong performance. This is interpreted as being influenced by the fact that securities firms have raised their investment ratings for Hanwha Ocean, highlighting its entry into the U.S. shipbuilding market and its potential for earnings growth.

As of 9:52 a.m. on June 12, Hanwha Ocean was trading at 85,200 won, up 7.3% from the previous day.

On this day, Kang Kyungtae, a researcher at Korea Investment & Securities, stated, "We acknowledge both the U.S. government's willingness to collaborate on commercial and naval shipbuilding, as well as Hanwha Group's intention to enter the U.S. shipbuilding industry. Accordingly, we are raising our investment rating and newly setting the target price at 114,000 won." He added, "Fifty-five percent (19.6 trillion won) of the appropriate corporate value (35 trillion won) can be explained by the company's existing business, while 45% is the value created by entering the U.S. commercial and naval ship markets."

Researcher Kang further analyzed, "If a company funded by shareholders becomes the largest shareholder of Austal, an Australian shipbuilding and defense company, it could secure up to 15% of the 30-year naval acquisition budget. Taking this into account, the value of entering the new U.S. naval shipbuilding market is estimated at 12.4 trillion won."

He continued, "Hanwha Ocean's EBITDA is expected to grow by 36.5% in 2026, 37.4% in 2027, and 8.1% in 2028 compared to the previous year. Considering process stabilization and improvements in the mix by ship type and vintage, we have raised our 2028 EBITDA estimate by 40.4% compared to the previous estimate."