Hapag-Lloyd CEO: No shipping mergers at the moment

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The chief executive officer (CEO) of German container shipping liner Hapag Lloyd said he was not aware of major merger activities in the sector a day after a Reuters report said his company had been approached by French rival CMA CGM.

“We do not see major takeovers in the industry,” Rolf Habben Jansen said in a statement issued on the day of the firm’s annual general meeting in Hamburg.

“If at all, there are smaller tie-ups by niche players in the short term,” he said.

Earlier reports said the world’s no. 3 container shipping line, CMA CGM of France, has made an exploratory approach to German rival Hapag-Lloyd over a possible merger as players in the sector hunt for tie-ups to beat depressed conditions, finance sources say.

Three finance sources with knowledge of the matter, who declined to be named due to market sensitivity, said CMA CGM had initiated discussions in recent months with Hapag-Lloyd, which is ranked fifth globally, to look into some form of share merger of the two groups.

“The idea which has been proposed... would be a non-cash merger,” one source said.

Key Hapag shareholders had rebuffed the proposition, which would narrow the gap to market leader Maersk Line, the sources said.

A Hapag spokesman, asked whether such a deal had been discussed, said: “These market rumors are without substance.”

A CMA spokesman declined to comment.

Hapag-Lloyd shares, which had been trading lower, surged by more than 10 percent following the Reuters report and were 3 percent higher at 1250 GMT.

A port worker moves a Hapag-Lloyd container at the Port of Bilbao on the second day of a three-day strike by Spanish port workers to protest the reform of operations, aimed at liberalizing hiring practices, in Santurtzi, northern Spain, June 7, 2017....