Pan Ocean buys 5% of Hanjin KAL from Hoban Construction

Pan Ocean Co., the shipping affiliate of Harim Group, on Tuesday said it bought a 5% stake or 3.3 million shares in Hanjin KAL Corp. in a block deal for 125.9 billion won ($95 million).

Pan Ocean said it bought part of the builder's shares as a simple investment and raised its stake in Hanjin KAL from 0.8% to 5.8%.

Hanjin KAL, the holding company of Hanjin Group and largest shareholder of Korean Air Lines Co., was embroiled in disputes between Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Won-tae and private equity funds over Hanjin KAL's management rights. Things calmed down after he attracted friendly shareholders as they now own a combined stake of nearly 50%.

An industry source said, "Harim Group seems to be doing a variety of investment groundwork given its considerable interest shown in entering the airline industry."

Write to Ik-Hwan Kim at lovepen@hankyung.com