THE biggest individual
shareholder of German flag carrier Hapag-Lloyd, Klaus-Michael Kuehne, has
suggested that Hapag-Lloyd merge with Hamburg Sud to restore its old position
as fourth largest box carrier with a combined fleet of 1.05 million TEU to
compete with the top three: Maersk, MSC and CMA CGM.
But the chance of successful
merger is slight, said maritime analyst Alphaliner, because the sole owner of
Hamburg Sud, the Oetker group, might not be interested in doing so and has
rejected similar proposals in the past. Hamburg Sud is currently the world's
12th largest carrier and operates a fleet of 411,000 TEU, according to
Alphaliner's figures. Hapag-Lloyd has slipped to sixth place behind Chinese
mainland's Cosco and Taiwan's Evergreen.
Hapag-Lloyd now runs a fleet
of 642,000 TEU. Kuehne and HGV, the City of Hamburg's investment arm, are the
two largest shareholders in the Albert-Ballin consortium that owns 77.9 per
cent of the carrier.
Another independent
shareholder is TUI AG, which possesses the remaining 22.1 per cent. TUI has
decided to quit the container shipping business by 2013 and sold 17.4 per cent
of Hapag-Lloyd's shares in June for EUR475 million. For the remaining shares,
it plans to launch an initial public offering (IPO) or look for third-party
buyers. But Alphaliner said both alternatives are not attractive at present due
to poor stock valuation of container shipping sector.
Source : SN-TR, 04.07.12.
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