South Korean poultry processor Harim Group is closer to acquiring compatriot bulker operator Pan Ocean.
Seoul Central District Court announced on 12 June that a rehabilitation plan has been passed as 87% of Pan Ocean’s creditors’ committee and 61.1% of the company’s stakeholders agreed to it. According to the plan, Harim Group is allowed to buy Pan Ocean; therefore, the Group becoming the new owner of Pan Ocean is a foregone conclusion.
Pan Ocean went into receivership in June 2013 after incurring debts of over USD5 billion.
After an open tender, Harim Group and its partner, private equity outfit JKL, were chosen as Pan Ocean’s preferred buyers in December 2014 as they offered the highest price of KRW1.07 trillion (USD904 million). Other interested buyers backed out as they felt Pan Ocean was overpriced.
Harim Group is expected to finalise procedures to take over Pan Ocean in August after holding a general meeting of stockholders and forming members of the board.
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The Group plans to reduce the costs to transport grains as Pan Ocean has a big bulker fleet. Harim Group has depended heavily on imports for forage needed for its livestock business.
In the meantime, Pan Ocean had an announcement through a korean exchange (KRX) filing on 12 June about a paid-in capital increase of KRW850 billion through an allotment to a third party.
The company will issue 340 million new shares, priced at KRW2,500 each.
A total of 272 million shares will be allotted to Jeil Holdings and the remainder of 68 million shares will be allotted to Poseidon 2014 LLC.
Pan Ocean said, “The effective date of new shares from new issuance is 20 June, according to the revised rehabilitation plan.”
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.
