[THE INVESTOR] South Korea’s second-largest shipper Hyundai Merchant Marine said on July 8 that it will visit major credit rating agencies to explain about its ongoing restructuring measures, in hopes they reevaluate the credit standing of the ailing company.

The company will visit the rating agencies Korea Investor Services, Korea Ratings and National Information and Credit Evaluation and talk about their restructuring plan process, including the asset sales, negotiations to reduce charter rates and ongoing talks to join the 2M, the international shipping alliance. 



HMM recently suffered a sharp drop in its credit rating to “D” after it initially failed to extend the maturity of debts in March.

However, HMM was able to reschedule all its debt totaling 843 billion won (US$ 726. 1 million) in May, getting out of the default status.

“The credit ratings to ‘default’ has negatively influenced our businesses here and abroad,” an official of the company said. “Since the restructuring plan has been successfully implemented, we hope the market assesses the credit rating appropriately.”

By Ahn Sung-mi (sahn@heraldcorp.com)