SYDNEY — Shares in Australian shipbuilder Austal Ltd surged more than 17% Tuesday after the company disclosed that South Korea's Hanwha Group had offered to buy its United States operations for up to $1.2 billion, as the defense conglomerate looks to deepen its push into the American shipbuilding market.

The stock closed up 17.45% at $4.51, after touching an intraday high of $4.59, on volume of more than 10.3 million shares, giving the company a market capitalization of approximately $1.9 billion. The move marked Austal's best intraday jump since mid-February and made it the top gainer on the benchmark ASX 200 index for the session.

Hanwha Defense USA offered to acquire Austal's U.S. entities and operations for between $1.05 billion and $1.20 billion, according to the company's disclosure. Austal's board said the proposal deserved further evaluation and granted Hanwha a four-week due diligence period to firm up its offer, while cautioning there was no certainty the process would ultimately result in a completed deal.

Austal specifically noted that the proposal did not include any publicly traded shares in Austal itself, nor any of its core Australasian shipbuilding operations, meaning the company's Australian defense manufacturing business and broader ASX-listed structure would remain intact regardless of the outcome of discussions over the........

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