Hyundai Merchant Marine has made an agreement with Hanjin Pacific Corporation (HPC) to acquire its 100% stake in Tokyo (Japan), Kaohsiung (Taiwan) and Algreciras (Spain) terminals for US$13.15 million. The deal also includes a 20% stake in Total Terminals International, which operates Pier T in Port of Long Beach, California.
HMM plans to complete the acquisition of HPC’s stake followed by detailed due diligence and regulatory approvals for each port. HPC is owned by Hanjin Shipping (60%) and Marine Terminals Investment Limited (40%).
HMM said: “This acquisition of Hanjin Pacific’s stake will work to expand HMM’s port network and strengthen our sales competitiveness. We greatly expect that it will have a synergistic effect with HMM+K2 consortium, which starts on March 1, 2017.”
Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) is South Korea's biggest carrier company after Hanjin was declared bankrupt by a South Korean court last week on Friday (February 17, 2017). The acquistion of the terminals will go towards Hanjin's debt repayments of US$4.6 billion.
The HMM+K2 consortium will be a rival against new alliances coming up in 2017, including Ocean – set to be the largest, which will present fierce competition in the carrier market.
HMM has been funded with USD $515 million as part of the new Korea Shipping fund, a government entity launched on January 23, 2017, which intends to rebuild the South Korean shipping and shipbuilding industry and ensure HMM will survive against the new allainces after the collapse of Hanjin Shipping.
The 2M alliance has also started making preparations to ensure it has a competitive advantage as its partners, Maersk Line and MSC, have launched an aggressive capacity hike on the two biggest trade lanes in Asia and North Europe to coincide with launch of Ocean in April 2017. The strength of Ocean has been recently shown in an infographic.
