French shipping group CMA CGM is not interested in merging with or buying TUI's Hapag-Lloyd unit, the world's fifth-largest container shipping company, CMA CGM said on Tuesday.
"We are not interested at all," a spokesman for CMG CMA said, adding that media reports it was interested were wrong.
TUI said on Monday it planned to approach potential buyers in late May or early June for Hapag-Lloyd, which analysts value at up to 4.6 billion euros ($7.29 billion).
Under pressure from shareholders to kill its twin-pillar strategy of tourism and shipping, TUI said in an open letter to shareholders that it had chosen Deutsche Bank, Citigroup and Greenhill as financial advisers for splitting off Hapag-Lloyd.
Shares of TUI were down 0.7 percent at 18.27 euros by 1017 GMT. The blue-chip DAX index was up 0.3 percent. The shares have risen about 14 percent in the past month on investors' hopes that splitting up the company will unlock value.
TUI hopes to complete its separation from Hapag-Lloyd this year, a timetable it has described as too short for a spin-off but long enough for a merger or sale.
U.S. activist investor Guy Wyser-Pratte, a TUI shareholder, has said many parties were interested in TUI's shipping unit, including Denmark's A.P. Moeller Maersk A/S , Singapore's Neptune Orient Lines Ltd (NOL) , France's CMA CGM and a big Korean shipping company.
NOL said last week it was looking at Hapag-Lloyd among options for consolidation among shipping firms.
"We are not interested at all," a spokesman for CMG CMA said, adding that media reports it was interested were wrong.
TUI said on Monday it planned to approach potential buyers in late May or early June for Hapag-Lloyd, which analysts value at up to 4.6 billion euros ($7.29 billion).
Under pressure from shareholders to kill its twin-pillar strategy of tourism and shipping, TUI said in an open letter to shareholders that it had chosen Deutsche Bank, Citigroup and Greenhill as financial advisers for splitting off Hapag-Lloyd.
Shares of TUI were down 0.7 percent at 18.27 euros by 1017 GMT. The blue-chip DAX index was up 0.3 percent. The shares have risen about 14 percent in the past month on investors' hopes that splitting up the company will unlock value.
TUI hopes to complete its separation from Hapag-Lloyd this year, a timetable it has described as too short for a spin-off but long enough for a merger or sale.
U.S. activist investor Guy Wyser-Pratte, a TUI shareholder, has said many parties were interested in TUI's shipping unit, including Denmark's A.P. Moeller Maersk A/S , Singapore's Neptune Orient Lines Ltd (NOL) , France's CMA CGM and a big Korean shipping company.
NOL said last week it was looking at Hapag-Lloyd among options for consolidation among shipping firms.