Moller-Maersk sells off its tankers unit

MOLLER-MAERSK has agreed to sell its tankers unit to Maersk’s holding company as the owner of the world’s biggest container shipping line moves ahead with a plan to divest all its energy assets.

Maersk Tankers will be sold for $1.17 billion (R15.57bn) to APMH Invest, the company said yesterday. The firm is a unit fully owned by AP Moller Holdings, which is the controlling shareholder of Maersk. The transaction will be made on a debt and cash-free basis and Maersk said it would use the proceeds to reduce its debt.

Maersk in June last year earmarked its entire energy business for divestment. It sold its oil and gas unit to Total in August for $7.45bn, with two-thirds of the amount being paid in the form of shares in the French company. The company still owns drilling and supply service units that it wants to get rid of.

Market challenged “Maersk has now taken significant steps to dispose of its energy-related businesses, ” Morten Imsgard, an analyst at Sydbank, said.

“But we believe that Maersk still needs to sell the two most challenged energy units – Maersk Drilling and Maersk Supply Service. Market conditions for these business units are very challenged and the outlook for better conditions is far away.”

David Kerstens, an analyst at Jefferies in London, said last month the tankers unit would probably fetch about $1.3bn. He estimated then that the drilling business might bring in $4.7bn and the supply service unit $1.4bn.

Maersk can track its tanker business back to 1928, when it obtained its first five vessels. In recent years, the unit has sold off its liquefied petroleum carriers and its very large crude carriers to focus on product tankers. It owns and operates more than 150 ships. – Bloomberg