[AP/Yonhap News Photo]
A court Friday kickstarted the process of selling assets from South Korea's troubled container carrier Hanjin Shipping which has been put under court receivership to avoid bankruptcy.
Bidding manager Samil PricewaterhouseCoopers issued a court-approved public notice through domestic newspapers Friday, saying it would start receiving letters of intent from October 28 and written proposals on November 7.
The court's move came as a cargo crisis caused by Hanjin's court receivership in late August showed signs of easing.
Before Hanjin was placed under receivership, the shipper was the world's seventh-largest container carrier. Market watchers believe potential buyers will be interested in Hanjin's assets including containers, overseas subsidiaries, and terminals.
With its global service crumbling, Hanjin will be kicked out of a global shipping alliance. The shipper has already transferred some core assets to its parent Hanjin Group but there are valuable assets still left intact such as ships and sales networks.
Financial regulators once suggested Hyundai Merchant Marine, controlled by creditors, could acquire healthy assets from Hanjin to maintain the competitiveness of South Korea's embattled shipping industry.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
