Korea Development Bank (KDB) has agreed to sell its DSME shares to Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) in a transaction that would combine the world's two largest shipbuilders.

The potential mega-merger comes two years after KDB bailed out DSME, which had run into financial difficulty.

Lee Dong-gull, chairman of KDB, said the combination of the two giants would ease competition and excess capacity, which were contributing to depressed newbuilding prices.