Pan Ocean Co., the shipping affiliate of Harim Group, on Tuesday said it bought a 5% stake or 3.3 million shares in Hanjin KAL Corp. in a block deal for 125.9 billion won ($95 million).
Pan Ocean said it bought part of the builder's shares as a simple investment and raised its stake in Hanjin KAL from 0.8% to 5.8%.
Hanjin KAL, the holding company of Hanjin Group and largest shareholder of Korean Air Lines Co., was
embroiled in disputes between Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Won-tae and private equity funds over Hanjin KAL's management rights. Things calmed down after he attracted friendly shareholders as they now own a combined stake of nearly 50%.
An industry source said, "Harim Group seems to be doing a variety of investment groundwork given its considerable interest shown in entering the airline industry."
Write to Ik-Hwan Kim at
lovepen@hankyung.com