Royal P&O Nedlloyd to start trading on Friday

Royal P&O Nedlloyd to start trading on Friday    Shares in Royal P&O Nedlloyd N.V., the Dutch company that now owns 100 percent of P&O Nedlloyd Container Line, will start trading on the Euronext stock exchange in Amsterdam Friday.
   This will mark the effective conversion of P&O Nedlloyd Container Line, set up in 1996 as a joint venture between London-based partner Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. and Royal Nedlloyd, into an independent, public company listed on the stock exchange. Royal P&O Nedlloyd’s shareholders are the former shareholders of Royal Nedlloyd, now restructured into the new company.
   “The new shares will be distributed on Friday,” said Leon Albers, investor relations executive at Royal Nedlloyd.
   The stock market listing of Royal P&O Nedlloyd follows Royal Nedlloyd's recent buyout of P&O from the joint venture, and the completion of a rights issue to finance part of the cash payment to P&O.
   Albers said Royal Nedlloyd shareholders bought 98.4 percent of the rights issued this week, and other investors bought the remaining 1.6 percent Tuesday.
   In March, the stockholders of both Royal Nedlloyd and P&O approved the buyout of P&O’s 50-percent stake in P&O Nedlloyd, a transaction valued at about $600 million.