Eager to keep container shipping line Hapag-Lloyd based in Hamburg, the city's government is prepared to spend a nine-figure sum as part of the local bidding consortium for the carrier, which is to be divested by parent company and tourism group TUI Holdings.
The government is already participating in the so-called Hamburg solution by joining the actual bidding company with a symbolic initial investment of EUR200,000 (US$314,000).
"Interest in the Hamburg solution is high," Finance Minister Michael Freytag was cited as saying in a Lloyd's List report. He added that private investors would have to contribute the major part of the purchase price.
It said the tender will be closed on July 21 and Mr Freytag expects the sales process to be completed by the end of September.
The Hamburg solution has been initiated by banker Christian Olearius and Kuehne + Nagel's Klaus Michael Kuehne, who earlier urged the Hamburg government to become financially involved in the tender process.
This comes as Thomas Held shocked the market with news of his resignation earlier this week, after just 20 months at the helm of Singapore' NOL Group. Dr Held had been instrumental in pushing for NOL to acquire Hapag-Lloyd, and his departure has triggered speculation that it will mark the end of a potential merger with Hapag-Lloyd.
A report by JPMorgan's Asia Pacific Equity Research division said NOL's operations will continue to run smoothly as Dr Held's replacement, container shipping veteran Ron Widdows, was previously running NOL's container division, APL. Mr Widdows will be the group's fourth CEO in the past five years, American Shipper said.
His resignation also coincides with growing opposition in Hamburg to a foreign takeover and an increasingly challenging operating environment in the Asia/Europe trade, with lines adding more capacity as the transpacific trade slows.
"We think NOL is better off not to acquire Hapag-Lloyd considering the hostility towards foreign ownership within Hapag-Lloyd and the potential high price that an acquirer may be required to pay," Johnson Man Leung, an analyst at JPMorgan was cited as saying in the report.
Furthermore, JP Morgan is warning that NOL's purchase of Hapag-Lloyd would require it to take on the German company's considerable freight forwarding customer base, something NOL has strategically avoided in order to build direct relations with end customers.
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