Pan Ocean shipping M&A... where to go?

While the interest in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) for Pan Ocean shipping heats up, the deadline for the submission of proposal documents has been settled for May 23.

KPMG Korea and the Korea Industrial Bank in charge of M&A for Pan Ocean Shipping, have contacted around 30 domestic and overseas companies regarding their intentions towards Pan Ocean by the mid-April. Related with this, it was said that 13 companies have agreed to keep things confidential.

Rumors circulated saying that 9 companies, both domestic and foreign, have directly expressed their interest in acquiring Pan Ocean shipping. However, all of these facts have been kept top secret because of the confidentiality agreement. Consulting companies as well as Pan Ocean shipping have been keeping their mouths zipped tight, making it difficult to figure out how thing are going. At this point, companies who expressed interest in acquiring Pan Ocean shipping received a memorandum requesting that they submit their proposals by May 23.

In the domestic market, it is well known that there are no suitable shipping companies to take over Pan Ocean shipping. HJS, HMM, and Cho Yang Line cannot afford to take over the company at this point in time. While other Korean shipping companies are neither capable of handling this giant company, nor of raising the capital needed.