Bruce Barnard, Special Correspondent | Dec 05, 2011 8:24AM EST
Singapore’s Neptune Orient Lines on Monday denied reports it is making a fresh bid for rival German ocean carrier Hapag-Lloyd.
“NOL wishes to state that currently, it is not making another bid for a stake in Hapag-Lloyd,” the parent of ocean carrier APL said in a statement to the Singapore Stock Exchange.
“NOL evaluates investment opportunities from time to time and will make the necessary announcements when appropriate.”
The statement followed a report in German newspaper Die Welt on Saturday that the world’s sixth-largest carrier has resumed talks with TUI about buying the German tourism group’s 38.4 percent stake in Hapag-Lloyd. NOL, which suspended trading in its shares pending the statement, called off a planned acquisition of Hapag-Lloyd in 2008 after failing to agree a price for the world’s fifth largest carrier.
On November 18, TUI said it is increasingly likely it will exercise an option to sell its stake in January to the Hamburg-based Albert Ballin consortium that owns the remainder of the carrier, rather than float it on the stock exchange or sell it to a third party investor. But the company held open the possibility of a sale to an outside investor.
TUI pulled plans to float part of its stake in Hapag-Lloyd earlier in the year due to turbulent conditions on European stock markets.
-- Contact Bruce Barnard at brucebarnard47@hotmail.com.