Hapag-Lloyd, APL merger talks denied

Hapag-Lloyd, APL merger talks denied Singapore-based Neptune Orient Line and Germany’s TUI AG have denied speculation that they are in talks to merge their respective container line subsidiaries APL and Hapag-Lloyd.
   French newspaper La Tribune, citing an unnamed source said to be close to TUI shareholders, had reported that Michael Frenzel, chief executive officer of TUI had made several trips to Singapore recently to negotiate a merger with NOL Group President and CEO Thomas Held.
   “There are no negotiations going on between us and Neptune,' TUI spokesman Robin Zimmermann is quoted as saying in a Bloomberg report.
   NOL spokesman Paul Barrett said the company doesn’t respond to speculation. NOL is majority owned by the Singapore government's investment company Temasek Holdings.
   TUI’s Frenzel has previously resisted pressure from shareholders to divest Hapag-Lloyd following the Hamburg-based line’s poor results after its $2.3 billion purchase of CP Ships in late 2005. Past speculation centered on Denmark’s A.P. Moller – Maersk Group buying the German carrier.
   A joint Hapag-Lloyd/APL entity would just overtake CMA CGM as the world’s third-largest carrier with a combined fleet of nearly 900,000 TEUs and an order book of about 367,000 TEUs, according to the latest statistics provided by AXS-Alphaliner.