[Namgung Jin-woong = timeid@ajunews.com]
SM Group, a mid-sized business conglomerate that owns South Korea's No. 2 bulk carrier Korea Line Corp., has withdrawn its bid to buy a stake in Hanjin Shipping Co.'s US port terminal after struggling to raise funds for the bid, industry sources said Tuesday.
As SM Group abandoned its status as the preferred bidder on a 54-percent stake in the port terminal in Long Beach, California, narrowing the bidder pool to two.
The two remaining bidders are a consortium of Hyundai Merchant Marine Co., a South Korean shipping line, and Swiss-based MSC, the world's No. 2 shipper; and a Korean private equity fund.
SM Group had been seeking to buy the stake after acquiring the troubled shipper's US-Asia route.
Hanjin Shipping, the nation's No. 1 shipper that is currently under court receivership, has been seeking to sell its assets in an effort to survive an industrywide slump and cash shortage.
(Yonhap)
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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