Bank says it represents potential Hapag Lloyd investors

Bank says it represents potential Hapag Lloyd investors A group of private investors may make a bid for Hapag Lloyd.
   Reuters quotes Christian Olearius, owner of private Hamburg bank MM Warburg, as saying on Monday his bank represents a group of investors who want to keep Hapag-Lloyd as an independent shipping company.
   Swiss logistics company Kuehne + Nagel is reportedly part of the investor group.
   Last week Klaus Michael Kuehne, chairman of the firm, said in an interview with German newspaper Die Welt that he liked the idea of TUI, the tourism company that owns Hapag-Lloyd, spinning off the container shipping unit. Kuehne told the paper he would personally buy shares in Hapag Lloyd if it became a separate company.
   The TUI supervisory board is meeting today amid growing pressure by some large investors for Hapag-Lloyd to be spun off or sold.
   Shipping magnate John Fredriksen, chairman and chief executive officer of the tanker company Frontline, has reportedly increased his stake in TUI to somewhere between 5 percent and 10 percent.
   Fredriksen and other dissident shareholders like American investor Guy Wyser-Pratte are urging TUI to make Hapag-Lloyd an independent company.