Australia’s biggest defence exporter receives takeover offer from Hanwha

Australia’s biggest defence exporter Austal has received a takeover offer from South Korea's Hanwha Ocean. The offer is at $2.825 a share, which values Austal at just over $1 billion. Austal started in WA in 1988 and is known for its high-speed ferries and defence vessels. It now builds ships in Mobile, Alabama, for the US Navy as well as the Philippines and Vietnam. But those arrangements with different Governments may present itself as a barrier for the takeover – Austal notes approval is needed from Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board, the US Defence Counterintelligence and Security Agency and the US Committee on Foreign Investment.