이 기사는 2022년 01월 06일 08:09 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

The state-controlled Korea Development Bank (KDB) has stepped away from managing HMM, the country’s only national flag shipping line, leaving the government body Korea Ocean Business Corporation (KOBC) to play a bigger role in running the company’s day-to-day operations.

HMM and the KOBC, the company’s second largest shareholder, signed an agreement for the execution of the competitiveness improvement plan on December 31, 2021, according to industry sources.

The agreement comes as the previous such agreement between three parties – HMM, KDB and the KOBC – which was struck in October 2018 expired on that day.

The renewed agreement without KDB among the contracting parties appears to reflect the state-controlled lender’s belief in the ability of the once struggling shipping company to survive on its own, industry watchers said.

HMM, formerly known as Hyundai Merchant Marine, is expected to report an operating profit of as much as 7 trillion won ($5.8 billion) in 2021 after turning a profit in 2020, on the back of increased shipping demand due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lee Dong-gull, KDB’s chairman, has openly expressed his intension to step away from HMM’s day-to-day operations and gradually reduce the bank’s stake in the company. KDB is the largest shareholder with a 20.69% stake and also the company’s largest creditor.


Under the renewed agreement, the KOBC, which holds the second largest stake of 19.96%, will oversee HMM’s overall management including personnel, operations and investment.

The company’s management group, which previously consisted of three officials each from KDB and the KOBC, now has four members after KDB staff were pulled out and a senior official at the KOBC was appointed as the management group’s new head.

“It is uncertain whether more staff will join the management group,” an official at the KOBC said.

HMM is also expected to announce an annual executive reshuffle soon, which was delayed from December last year obviously because of the change in the contracting parties of the agreement.

The appointment of the company’s top executives including the chief executive officer is determined by the board’s nominating committee whose members include officials representing the company’s major shareholders and creditors.

The KOBC will continue to discuss important management issues with KDB in the future. “KDB remains to be the shipping line’s largest shareholder and creditor so the two will make key decisions together,” the KOBC official said. (Reporting by Su-jin Yoo)