TUI’s shares jump after Maersk takeover speculation

TUIÆs shares jump after Maersk takeover speculation    The share price of Hapag-Lloyd parent company TUI AG jumped 6 percent yesterday amid speculation that A.P. Moller-Maersk is preparing a takeover bid for the container shipping unit of the German company.
   TUI's share price on the DAX went up to 16.29 euros ($20.72) from Tuesday's closing price of 15.40 euros ($19.59) before falling back to 15.68 euros ($19.95).
   'We heard the rumor TUI, or parts of the company, might be bought,’' Ascan Iredi, head of equity trading at Deutsche Postbank AG in Frankfurt, told Bloomberg.
   The deal seems unlikely considering that both TUI and A.P. Moller are still digesting their respective acquisitions of CP Ships and P&O Nedlloyd. A.P. Moller recently announced that it was lowering its profit expectations for 2006 as the cost of integrating P&O Nedlloyd bit harder than expected.
   'We have a two pillar strategy — container shipping and tourism — and nothing has changed,' said Kuzey Esener, TUI’s spokesperson for economic and financial issues.
   A.P. Moller said it does not comment on market speculation.
   If such a deal were to materialize, a combined A.P. Moller/Hapag-Lloyd operation would operate a vessel fleet of about 2.17 million TEUs, well over double it’s nearest competitor, Geneva-based Mediterranean Shipping Co., which controls a fleet with about 945,000 TEUs capacity.