According to a source from the investment banking market in South Korea, LX International is reconsidering its bid for HMM due to its own financial pressures and the challenges facing the container shipping industry.

The acquisition of HMM could turn into a two-way struggle between Harim Group and Dongwon Group.

Recently, a representative from LX International stated that the company "has not reached a decision yet."

It is understood that Pan Ocean's parent company Harim Group, South Korean logistics group LX, and Dongwon are shortlisted as candidates for acquiring a majority stake in HMM.

LX International has appointed local accounting firm Nexia Samduk as its advisor, hoping that acquiring HMM will help it achieve synergies with its third-party logistics subsidiary LX Pantos.

As a subsidiary of LG Corporation, LX has had a poor financial performance so far this year. Preliminary data shows that LX's net profit for the third quarter plunged 80% year-on-year to 36.2million.Thecumulativenetprofitforthefirstninemonthsfell60205 million. The group's core business, natural resource supply, trading, and logistics revenue have all decreased.

On Friday last week, HMM disclosed its plummeting profit data - a 96% year-on-year decline in net profit for the third quarter to 95 billion Korean won (70.2million);forthefirstninemonths,thecumulativenetprofitplunged92521.8 million).

Meanwhile, the heads of Harim and Dongwon have stated that they will persist in the HMM election and begin active fundraising.

However, in an assessment organized by the Korea Sea Journalists Association earlier this week, Harim-JKL, Dongwon Group, and LX International were all deemed "medium-sized" companies lacking the capital required to acquire a controlling stake in HMM.

Moreover, just last week, HMM employees gathered in front of the building of its largest shareholder, the Korea Development Bank (KDB), to protest and demonstrate, stating that selling HMM to "medium-sized companies" threatens their job security.