Hanwha Sells $1B Worth of Stock in Hanwha Ocean to Fund U.S. Projects

A holding company in South Korea's Hanwha Group has sold about $1 billion worth of shares in shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean, and it plans to reinvest the proceeds in its new U.S. projects.

Hanwha Impact Partners has sold its entire remaining stake in Hanwha Ocean - about 13 million shares, equal to about four percent of the company - to institutional buyers in a block sale. The holding company started out with a nine percent stake in 2023, the year Hanwha bought the shipbuilder, according to Yonhap. Hanwha Group retains 42 percent of Hanwha Ocean, along with management rights.

The share sale is well-timed: Hanwha Ocean's stock has risen by 250 percent since last year. Hanwha Ocean share prices fell by five percent after the announcement Thursday.

Hanwha owns Hanwha Philly Shipyard, formerly held by Norwegian conglomerate Aker, and it has pledged to spend $5 billion on enlarging the American yard's capacity, taking it from one ship delivery per year today to 20 ships per year by the 2030s. Philly's yard - valued at $100 million at the time of its sale last year - will be upgraded with improved basic infrastructure, as well as South Korean innovations like robotic welding technology. This is one of the first major commitments under the $150 billion program that South Korea's government calls "Make American Shipbuilding Great Again," or MASGA.

Hanwha is also buying two LNG carriers that will be built jointly in Korea and the U.S., then flagged into the United States registry. The project will be an opportunity to transfer Korean LNG shipbuilding techniques and technology to Philly, Hanwha says. In addition, it has ordered a series of 10 MR chemical tankers from Philly, which it says is the biggest commercial order by value ever placed at an American yard.

Hanwha Group said that the share sale will help fund these initiatives, and a company official also told Yonhap that "the goal is also to improve the financial structure by repaying debt."