[Courtesy of Hanjin Group]
Hanjin Transportation Co., a logistics provider of South Korea's Hanjin Group, said Friday it was consider buying a 54 percent stake held by the group's troubled shipping unit in the Long Beach container terminal in California.
Hanjin Transportation said in a brief regulatory filing that the purchase of Hanjin Shipping's stake in the terminal was "under consideration".
In an effort to ride out a credit crisis, Hanjin Shipping hopes to sell assets including the terminal that could raise around 100 billion won (90.6 million US dollars), but the company has yet to find suitable buyers.
The terminal capable of handling more than three million TEUs annually is one of Hanjin Shipping's key cargo terminals abroad.
Hanjin Shipping has been kept afloat with a continued injection of money from other group units, including Korean Air. In July, Hanjin Transport bought Hanjin Shipping's stake in the Tan Cang-Cai Mep International Terminal in Vietnam for 22.9 billion won.
The shipping unit is under a creditor-led rehabilitation program which expires on September 4. It needs at least one trillion won in its short-term liquidity to cover arrears in payment to chartered ship owners as well as operational funds.
Like other tycoons, Cho and his family control the group through a complex web of cross-shareholdings. The Cho family is under pressure to donate a big amount of personal wealth for the restructuring of Hanjin Shipping.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
