Bidding to take over South Korea’s flagship shipowner HMM has come down to two competing groups.

Business Korea cited investment banking sources as saying the race for the boxship, VLCC and bulker company has narrowed to Dongwon Group and a consortium comprising Harim Group and JKL Partners.

Offers have been submitted in a process witnessed by HMM’s big state-owned shareholders, Korea Development Bank (KDB) and Korea Ocean Business Corp.