No plan for now to restart sale of HMM: oceans minister

March 7, 2024

Oceans Minister Kang Do-hyung said Thursday the government has no plans for now to restart the sale process of South Korea’s top container shipper, HMM Co., after negotiations fell apart last month.

“We have no plan to restart sales of HMM for now,” Kang told reporters. “As the company is injected with the state fund, we plan to set plans so that it can be operated soundly.”

Two state agencies — the state-run Korea Development Bank and the Korean Ocean Business Corp. — had talks with the Harim-JKL Partners consortium since it was picked as the preferred bidder in late December.

The negotiations, however, ended in vain in early February as both sides failed to iron out differences over some issues.