The South Korean bankruptcy court is considering bundling a shipyard in France specializing in cruise ships owned by STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co. to add appeal to the sale of the Korean mid-tier shipbuilder under court management. The package deal, if proceeded, could fetch as much as 1 trillion won ($906 million).

According to legal sources on Monday, the Seoul Central District Court is considering to propose the package sale plan in upcoming creditors’ meeting planned for Oct. 14.

The court in charge of the company since it filed for protection in May has been advised that the prospects of the sale would rise if the shipyards in Korea and France are bundled up with primary strength in cruise liners. The court previously had planned to sell 66.66 percent stake STX Europe holds in STX France separately through Samil PricewaterhouseCoopers. It changed its plan upon learning a British company was interested in STX Offshore if it comes with STX France.

The investment banking industry estimates the package deal could come close to $1 billion as the value of the stake in STX France alone would be around 100 billion won. The final due diligence report submitted by investment banks to the court in August concluded that STX’s going-concern value, the value of a business that is expected to continue operating, would be 1.26 trillion won, exceeding the liquidation value of 918.5 billion won. The Goseong Offshore & Shipbuilding, STX’s local unit, could be included in the package deal.

But including STX France in the sale plan require approval from the French government, which owns the remaining 33.34 percent in the shipyard in Saint-Nazaire. It may not like leak in its cruise designing technology. STX Offshore still relies on French technology to build cruise liners.

STX filed for court protection in May as its creditors decided to stop dragging its feet on the country’s fourth largest shipbuilder following injection of billions of dollars to bail it out.

By Kim Yoon-jin

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]