Shipping Is a Dirty Business. Cleaning It Up Is Lucrative
HD Hyundai Marine’s IPO doubled its stock in just a few days. It shows fervor for companies that are making shipping greener and more efficient.
Finding inspiration.
Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/BloombergSouth Korea’s tech-heavy stock market has found inspiration in an underappreciated sector of the nation’s sprawling economy. HD Hyundai Marine Solution Co. raised more than $500 million in its initial public offering last week and immediately found momentum: The stock doubled in the first few days of trading, taking its market value past $5.8 billion.
It’s not a chipmaker like Samsung Electronics Co. nor an electric-vehicle battery supplier like LG Energy Solution Ltd. HD Hyundai Marine is in the ship-services business, and investors have taken notice. The biggest winner from its meteoric first-week rise is its largest shareholder, South Korea’s Hyundai conglomerate. Private-equity firm KKR & Co. is also counting its profits as it retains a 24% stake after the listing. KKR, HD Hyundai Co. and its slate of new investors are all betting that a global green movement that’s taking hold in industries from server farms to automobiles will prove lucrative to the ocean transport sector.