Australian shipbuilder Austal said on Wednesday it had extended the due diligence period for Hanwha Group, allowing the South Korean conglomerate more time to formulate a formal offer for its US business, sending its shares sharply higher.
Austal said commercial negotiations with Hanwha had started on the terms of a potential transaction, while the company also continues to assess its tax implications.
Austal shares jumped as much as 11.5 per cent to AU$4.18 by 03:15 GMT, posting their strongest intraday gain since August 11.
"Regarding due diligence, while the substantive issues in the data room have been closed out, and the original parameters of the transaction have not changed, a tail of lower materiality data requests remains outstanding," Austal said in a statement.
The company said it also remains in discussions with US-based Wildcat Infrastructure regarding its proposal to acquire Austal's US operations.
Wildcat Infrastructure in September offered up to $1.35 billion for Austal's US business, topping an earlier bid of up to $1.20 billion from Hanwha.
(Reporting by Shivangi Lahiri in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)