The South Korean shipping company HMM has been selected by private equity firm Hahn & Co. as the preferred bidder for the acquisition of SK Shipping, Seoul shipping company that has a fleet of tankers, mainly for the transport of crude oil as well as natural gas and petroleum products, and bulk carriers. Hahn & Co. had acquired 79% of the share capital of SK Shipping in 2018 by the SK group, a share that would now be close to 71%. The South Korean media have announced that the negotiations exclusively with HMM have already been started and is currently in operation due diligence procedure that will continue until next month. It was also recalled that in 2023 Hahn & Co. tried to sell SK's tanker fleet Shipping and since last year has been considering the sale of of the entire shipping company.

South Korean media highlighted the main difficulty which stands in the way of SK Shipping's sale to HMM, as the latter in 2014, when its company name was Hyundai Merchant Marine, had sold its business in the maritime transport of liquefied natural gas to its compatriot IMM Private Equity by signing an agreement that, with a prohibition clause of competition, prevented it from falling into this segment of activities until 2029. Therefore, it has been assumed that the possible divestment of SK Shipping would not include the of LNG transport and which would take place for a figure close to 1.4 billion dollars.