Amid today’s shipbuilding supercycle, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries looks like it will have to fork out a huge amount to reacquire a block manufacturer it sold six years ago.
South Korea’s largest shipbuilder is being widely tipped as buying back a majority stake in Hyundai Hyms from J& Private Equity for around $360m.
Founded in 2008, Hyundai Hyms was created by HD Hyundai Heavy as a block manufacturer. In 2019, a majority stake was sold to J& Private Equity for $67m amid a bid to acquire Daewoo Shipbuilding. The block manufacturer then listed in Seoul in January last year.
Busy HD Hyundai is operating at full capacity on home soil with a backlog of hundreds of vessels on order stretching nearly three years.
