HMM to Cancel 2 Trillion Won Worth of Treasury Shares, Announces Shareholder Returns

by Jun Youngjoo

Published 14 Aug.2025 17:36(KST)

HMM, the largest shipping company in South Korea, has decided to repurchase and cancel all of its treasury shares worth 2 trillion won as part of its efforts to enhance corporate value. HMM has allocated 2.5 trillion won this year for shareholder returns.

According to a regulatory filing with the Financial Supervisory Service on August 14, HMM will purchase 81,801,526 common shares via a tender offer for 2.1432 trillion won and cancel all of them. The shares subject to the tender offer and cancellation account for about 8% of the total issued shares.

Yonhap News

HMM plans to conduct the tender offer at 26,200 won per common share. If the number of shares tendered is less than the number intended for acquisition, HMM will buy all of them. If the number of tendered shares exceeds the intended acquisition, shares will be purchased on a pro-rata basis up to the intended quantity.

The tender offer subscription period will run from August 18 to September 12. KB Securities will serve as the intermediary for the tender offer. After acquiring all the shares, HMM plans to cancel them on September 24.

It has not yet been decided whether the major shareholders, Korea Development Bank (36.02%) and Korea Ocean Business Corporation (35.67%), will participate in the tender offer.

HMM announced that in the second quarter of this year, it recorded sales of 2.6227 trillion won and operating profit of 233.2 billion won. Sales increased by 1.5% year-on-year, while operating profit decreased by 63.8%.

Previously, HMM announced in its shareholder return plan released in January that it would carry out shareholder returns of more than 2.5 trillion won within the year. Shareholder returns include dividends, as well as share buybacks and cancellations. In the mid- to long-term, HMM aims to expand shareholder returns to at least the lower of a 30% dividend payout ratio or a 5% dividend yield by 2030.