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Hanwha Defense USA, a subsidiary of South Korea’s Hanwha Group, has made an offer to buy Austal USA, an Alabama-based defense contractor that builds steel and aluminum surface vessels for the Navy and the Coast Guard.
The offer for the US subsidiary of the Australian defense contractor Austal comes with a price tag of up to $1.2 billion. It follows Hanwha’s unsuccessful April 2024 takeover bid for the entire company.
“Any deal will be contingent on due diligence that permits a thorough evaluation of Austal USA’s operations and financials, including newly-discovered information,” Hanwha Defense USA spokesman James Hewitt said Monday. “Hanwha has made it a priority to significantly contribute to revitalizing American shipbuilding and is exploring a range of options to expand our footprint in the United States.”
On Tuesday, Austal confirmed that it had received a “non-binding and conditional” offer from Hanwha to acquire its U.S. subsidiary on a cash-and-debt-free basis.
“The Austal Board and its advisers have carefully assessed the proposal and determined that it merits further evaluation, approving Hanwha to undertake due diligence related to Austal USA to improve the certainty of any proposal,” the company said in its financial disclosure statement.
Austal USA’s biggest contract was a roughly $4 billion deal to build 19 Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ships for the Navy.
As part of its expansion into the U.S. market, Hanwha USA bought the Philadelphia Shipyard in December 2024. Now known as the Hanwha Philly Shipyard, it performs maintenance, repair and overhaul work on U.S. Navy vessels and constructs specialized ships.
In July, the Trump administration selected it to build next-generation Missile Range Instrument Vessels to track flight and telemetry data as part of the Golden Dome missile defense initiative.
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