Harim stock soars after being named as preferred buyer for HMM

[Courtesy of HMM]

Shares of Harim Group, one of South Korea’s biggest agri-food companies, gained Tuesday morning following reports that it was named as preferred buyer for the country’s largest container carrier HMM Co.

Shares of Harim Holdings Co. skyrocketed 18.42 percent to 3,440 won ($2.6) as of 10 a.m. on Tuesday. HMM shares also surged 1.6 percent to 17,820 won.

Earlier, Korea Development Bank and Korea Ocean Business Corp., the biggest shareholders of HMM, named a consortium led by Harim Group and private equity firm JKL Partners as the preferred buyer for HMM. The deal is priced at 6.4 trillion won.

The shareholders are set to sign a stock purchase agreement with the consortium to complete the deal in the first half of 2024.

Once the acquisition is complete, Harim Group will see its asset value expand to 42.8 trillion won, becoming the country’s thirteenth-largest business group.