Hanjin Sells Stake in Terminal in Vietnam

Hanjin Shipping has sold its 20 percent stake in a terminal at Cai Mep, Vietnam to another subsidiary of Hanjin Group for $20 million. 

The container facility at Cai Mep, a large port complex in southern Vietnam, is a joint venture with Wan Hai and Mitsui OSK. 

As shipping rates have fallen and vessel charter rates have stayed the same, the firm has come under pressure from creditors, and it has created a plan to raise $360 million in order to stay out of court receivership.

The firm has already sold off a variety of assets: its stake in H-Line Shipping, a spinoff focused on bulk shipping, which also holds the bulk business formerly belonging to Hyundai; some of its trademark rights; two of its foreign offices; the operating rights to several of its routes; and at least one vessel. In total it has raised roughly two thirds of the restructuring amount. 

Hanjin has a restructuring deadline to satisfy its creditors, and it says that it is approaching too quickly in order to get everything in order. It has asked for an extension until September - but creditors, led by state-run Korea Development Bank, have not expressed interest in pushing out the deadline. 

"For creditors to allow a month suspension, they need to be convinced that at least the company has a will for normalization," an official told Korea Times. 

Hanjin's primary obstacle remains charter rates: shipowners like Seaspan have so far not agreed to any voluntary agreement to reduce rates. “We do not accept any rate cut,” Seaspan CEO Gerry Wang told Bloomberg in June. “We have never done it. We won’t tolerate a contract re-negotiation. Any call for rate cut is illegal by international laws.” Hanjin is seeking a 30 percent rate reduction.