HMM to receive support from South Korean government

Hyundai Merchant Marine said it expects to receive funding from a new South Korean government shipping entity, which will buy and charter back vessels to the shipping company.    Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) said it expects to receive funding of about 750 billion South Korean won (U.S. $644 million) from a new Korean government shipping entity tentatively called “Korea Shipping Company.”
   The South Korean government will buy ships from HMM and then charter them back to the carrier, HMM said.
   Details of the plan were incomplete and contradictory, but HMM pointed to Pulse News, a website affiliated with Maeil Business News Korea, which said HMM will be “the first beneficiary to a set of Korean government rescue schemes for shipping and shipbuilders.”
   The report on Pulse, which quoted an anonymous government official, said HMM would receive over 600 billion won, for the “expansion of terminals and fleet.”
   “The new entity, in which 90 percent of the initial capital would come from state lenders Korea Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of Korea and the remainder from the country’s debt clearing house Korea Asset Management Corp. (KAMCO), is designed to assist strengthening of local shippers against protracted industrial slowdown,” Pulse said. “It will act as a tonnage bank by buying vessels and assets from liquidity-short shippers at market price and lease them back.”