Report: Fredriksen not pursuing Hapag-Lloyd share

Report: Fredriksen not pursuing Hapag-Lloyd share    Shipping magnate John Fredriksen has no plans to buy a slice of the German container line Hapag-Lloyd if it is put on the open market, his aide Tor Olav Troim told Bloomberg this week.

Fredriksen

   Fredriksen owns roughly 15 percent in TUI AG, the European tourism giant that owns nearly half of Hapag-Lloyd. TUI confirmed this week it is planning an initial public offering for the container line sometime in 2011. The company sold a majority of Hapag-Lloyd in 2008 to a consortium of German businessman keen to keep the shipping line based in Hamburg. Since then, TUI’s share of Hapag-Lloyd has risen from about 43 percent to nearly 50 percent due to short-term loans the parent company made as Hapag-Lloyd weathered the economic crisis in 2009.
   TUI head Michael Frenzel said this week the company expects the container line to repay substantial amounts of those loans. On Wednesday TUI announced Hapag-Lloyd’s first quarter financial year (October through December) revenues were up 34 percent on the corresponding period a year ago.
   Hapag-Lloyd is the fifth-largest container line in the world by fleet capacity, according to maritime news service Alphaliner.