Several media reports said that Hapag-Lloyd's acquisition of HMM stopped in the first round of bidding and was excluded from the second round of bidding!

Previously, the Korea Maritime Industries Federation (FKMI) and the Busan Port Development Association (BPDA) had publicly opposed the German liner operator Hapg-Lloyd being allowed to bid for HMM, and accused the South Korean government of "not realizing that shipping is of national importance".

They said that "from the national economic and security point of view, it is necessary to prevent foreign control of South Korea's flagship container shipping company."

"If we sell HMM to Hapag-Lloyd, we are concerned about the outflow of valuable national assets, such as our country's decades-long accumulation of container shipping assets, terminals and expertise."

During the preliminary bidding phase, five potential buyers submitted about 5 trillion won (3.7 billion dollars) in offers, with Hapag-Lloyd considered the front-runner because of its 7 billion-dollar balance sheet.

But according to South Korean media reports, in the receipt of the tender for a preliminary review, Hapg-Lloyd has been from the seller (South Korean government) to draw up the candidate list removed, only South Korean local enterprises Dongwon, Harim and LX Holdings into is expected to be in November to make a final sale decision of the next stage.

So now all eyes turn to the three competition.

While LX Holdings and Dongwon have an advantage in logistics, Harim controls a South Korean ocean shipping company, Pan Ocean, and has partnered with a private equity firm to bid for HMM.

It is understood that the South Korean shipping company's creditors are eager to sell and are currently conducting due diligence on the remaining bidders, hoping to announce the winner by November.

Source: Shipping Online