SEOUL—Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Kumho-Asiana Group, Hanjin Group and STX Group submitted separate bids for a controlling stake valued at about $2.7 billion in Korea Express Co., South Korea’s biggest logistics company.

Hyundai Heavy, the world’s largest shipyard, and unit Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co. made an offer by the 3 p.m. deadline Wednesday, Hyundai Heavy spokesman Park Zoon Soo said. Kumho-Asiana’s Asiana Airlines Ltd. and Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co. units made a joint offer, the two companies said in separate regulatory filings Wednesday.

Korea Express is at the center of the largest stake sale in South Korea since Kumho-Asiana Group bought Daewoo Engineering in 2006. The logistics company has been in court receivership since 2001 after it failed to pay debt inherited from former parent Dongah Construction Industrial Co.

Court spokesman Oh Min Seok declined to comment, as did Korea Express.

STX spokesman Lee Hong Suk confirmed the group submitted a bid for Korea Express. Hanjin Group also filed an offer, said Suh Kang Yoon, a spokesman for its Korean Air Lines Co. unit.

Korea Express plans to sell 24 million new shares, the Seoul Central District Court said on November 26. The new stock, to be sold in one block, represents 60 percent of the company’s expanded capital. The shares are valued at 2.52 trillion won ($2.7 billion) at Wednesday’s closing price.

Korea Express hired Merrill Lynch & Co., law firm Bae, Kim & Lee LLC and Samil PricewaterhouseCoopers in October to arrange the stake sale.

Korea Express gained 2.4 percent to close at 105,000 won in Seoul. The stock has advanced 10 percent in the past 12 months, compared with a 23-percent rise in South Korea’s Kospi index. (Bloomberg)

Agency brings back rates to old levels, ending exporters’ discounts

THE Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) announced that fees collected from the use of ports have been brought back to their previous levels, ending substantial discounts previously enjoyed by exporters, shippers and port users.

A GROUP of shipping lines has not formally discussed a rate increase at least until next month. An official of the Philippine Liner Shipping Association (PLSA) said Monday that the group has yet to bring the matter up in a meeting since the group is currently preoccupied with a fee hike proposed by truckers.

PARIS—Total SA, Europe’s third-largest oil company, must pay a share of more than €190 million ($281 million) in civil fines and a separate criminal fine in a case over the 1999 sinking of the oil tanker Erika.

SEOUL—Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Kumho-Asiana Group, Hanjin Group and STX Group submitted separate bids for a controlling stake valued at about $2.7 billion in Korea Express Co., South Korea’s biggest logistics company.