Seoul: South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries Co Monday said it is planning an initial public offering of its unit Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Co but there is no timeframe for the IPO as of now.
"Accounting firm Samjong KPMG recently finished an audit of Hyundai Samho Heavy ahead of the company's IPO," said a company spokesman.
Hyundai Heavy, the world's largest shipbuilder by order backlog, owns 94.9% of Hyundai Samho Heavy, the world's fifth-largest shipbuilder by order backlog. Hyundai Samho is based in Mokpo and has expanded its building capabilities greatly in the past four years so that it can handle the most complex merchant ships including LNG. Hyundai Heavy also controls Hyundai Mipo based in the same city as its parent, Ulsan. In the past 12 months Hyundai Heavy's share price has soared from around 170,000 won to peak at 500,000 won in November. Today, however in the first day's trading since last Tuesday, all shipbuilders took a beating at the Korea Stock Exchange. Shipbuilders were sold off, with sentiment dampened by growing worries about a global economic slowdown which could mean a drop in new ship orders.
Hyundai Heavy ended down 15,000 won or 4.3 percent at 333,500 won, Samsung Heavy was down 800 won or 2.7 percent at 28,800 and Daewoo Shipbuilding was down 1,850 won or 5.1 percent at 34,450 won. The perfect window for Hyundai Samho's stock debut may have passed. [11/02/08]
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