Austal, Cerberus team up to eye Hanjin's Philippine shipyard

HJ ShipBuilding & Construction Co

09/10/2019 11:08

MANILA, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Australian shipbuilder Austal Ltd
 ASB.AX  and U.S. private equity firm  CBS.UL  are considering a
joint bid for a strategically located but debt-laden Philippine
shipyard, the facility's trustee said on Wednesday.
    Hanjin Philippines, a unit of South Korea's Hanjin Heavy
Industries & Construction Co Ltd  097230.KS , in January
defaulted on $1.3 billion in loans, of which $900 million is
owed to South Korean banks and the rest to five Philippine
lenders.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2270QB
    Austal and Cerberus are interested in the distressed
shipyard, and they have two to three weeks to formally submit a
bid, receivership lawyer Rosario Bernaldo told Reuters.
    "What I want to happen is that the shipyard operates again
instead of being a white elephant," Bernaldo said, adding that
Dutch and Italians firms had inquired about the facility early
on.
    Austal, which operates a shipbuilding facility in central
Philippines, and Cerberus did not respond to requests for
comment.
    Hanjin Philippines' shipyard until recently employed 20,000
workers in Subic Bay, which is considered an important asset
because of the its shelter, deep water and access to the South
China Sea. Until 1992, Subic was home to a U.S. navy base.
    The creditors are engaged in exclusive talks with a
potential bidder, said Eugene Acevedo, president of mid-sized
Rizal Commercial Banking Corp  RCB.PS  (RCBC). He declined to
name the company given non-disclosure agreements.
    "It has to be exclusive because otherwise, it would be
unfair for the white knight to put an effort on this huge
thing," Acevedo told Reuters. Hanjin borrowed $145 million from
RCBC.
    The sale of the shipyard, which was battered by a slump in
the global shipping and shipbuilding industry, triggered
geo-political concerns after it drew interest from two
unidentified Chinese firms.
    China is expanding its presence in the South China Sea, a
trade route for $3 trillion of commerce each year.
    

 (Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by Kim Coghill)
 ((neiljerome.morales@thomsonreuters.com; +632 8418914;))