[301013.EN.SEA] Hapag-Lloyd Shareholder Breakup Unlikely To Affect Carrier Operation

THE Albert Ballin consortium, which held a 78 per cent stake in Hapag-Lloyd, has dissolved ahead of schedule, but it is unlikely to have immediate operational impact on the world's fifth biggest container carrier.

The move is likely to strengthen the arm of incoming chief executive Rolf Habben-Jansen, giving him a freer hand, commented London's Lloyd's list.

The dissolution will also allow former participants to dispose of their shareholdings individually if they so wish. Control of Hapag-Lloyd passed to the consortium in 2008, after Singapore's Neptune Orient Line withdrew its offer to purchase the company from German tour operator Tui following the financial crisis.

TUI, which has long been keen to dump Hapag and back to its core business selling package tours, retains a 22 per cent interest and has long been hoping to mount an initial public offering for Hapag-Lloyd.

Sources aware of the situation said the consortium had from the outset been regarded as something with a five-year lifespan, which had been due to end by January anyway.

In the event, participants decided to pull the plug a few months early. A looser co-operation framework agreement has been prepared, but German media reports suggest it is unclear whether or not it will be signed.

The Albert Baillin consortium is led by the city-state authority in Hamburg, which owns 36.9 per cent, and logistics entrepreneur Klaus-Michael Kuehne with 28.2 per cent.

Other participants are insurers Signal Iduna with 5.3 per cent and Hanse Merkur with 1.8 per cent; HSH Nordbank with 2.9 per cent; and private investors Friedhelm Behn and Detlev Meyer, both in the fashion business, who together hold 2.9 per cent.

A spokesman for Hapag-Lloyd said the issue was entirely a matter for its shareholders and declined further comment.

Whatever TUI might want, an IPO seems pretty much excluded before this time next year, following a recent pronouncement from TUI chief financial officer Horst Baier. For an IPO to take place, "all the ingredients have to be right," he told a seminar earlier this month, adding, "That won't happen before autumn 2014."

Owing to state government involvement, there is also concern that an IPO any sooner would see local taxpayers lose out on their investment, the report said.

Source : HKSG.