Hamburg, home to TUI AG's Hapag-Lloyd unit, will join M.M. Warburg & Co. and billionaire Klaus-Michael Kuehne to bid for the container-shipping company, the German city's Finance Senator Michael Freytag said today.
The city will hold a 20 percent stake, worth 200,000 euros ($313,000), in a new company formed to make the bid, Freytag told reporters at a press conference. M.M. Warburg is based in Hamburg, while Kuehne, who controls transportation company Kuehne & Nagel International AG, was born in the city.
Hamburg's government last month said the port city might consider buying the shipping line to protect jobs. TUI, Europe's biggest tour operator, is seeking a buyer for Hapag, which analysts have said may be worth 5.4 billion euros. Press reports have said Singapore's Neptune Orient Lines Ltd. is interested.
Hamburg raises the flag for Hapag-Lloyd,'' Freytag said, without disclosing how much the group plans to offer for the unit. He added that he considers the shipper to be an embodiment of Germany's skills as an exporting country.
TUI declined 23 cents, or 1.3 percent, to 17.77 euros at 1:20 p.m. in Frankfurt trading.
Spokesman Uwe Kattwinkel said the Hanover, Germany-based company wasn't informed about the Hamburg press conference.
TUI certainly wouldn't give any discount for a domestic bidder,'' Achim Matzke, an equity strategist at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
The company formed to make the bid is known as Verwaltung Hamburgische Seefahrtsbeteiligung Albert Ballin GmbH and takes its name from Albert Ballin, who at the beginning of the 20th century made the former Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt- Actiengesellschaft (Hapag) the world's largest shipping line.
We won't be able to spend billions for Hapag-Lloyd,'' Freytag said. He didn't rule out Hamburg increasing its 200,000- euro investment in future. The bidding group is seeking more investors to make a joint bid, the senator added.
The city will hold a 20 percent stake, worth 200,000 euros ($313,000), in a new company formed to make the bid, Freytag told reporters at a press conference. M.M. Warburg is based in Hamburg, while Kuehne, who controls transportation company Kuehne & Nagel International AG, was born in the city.
Hamburg's government last month said the port city might consider buying the shipping line to protect jobs. TUI, Europe's biggest tour operator, is seeking a buyer for Hapag, which analysts have said may be worth 5.4 billion euros. Press reports have said Singapore's Neptune Orient Lines Ltd. is interested.
Hamburg raises the flag for Hapag-Lloyd,'' Freytag said, without disclosing how much the group plans to offer for the unit. He added that he considers the shipper to be an embodiment of Germany's skills as an exporting country.
TUI declined 23 cents, or 1.3 percent, to 17.77 euros at 1:20 p.m. in Frankfurt trading.
Spokesman Uwe Kattwinkel said the Hanover, Germany-based company wasn't informed about the Hamburg press conference.
TUI certainly wouldn't give any discount for a domestic bidder,'' Achim Matzke, an equity strategist at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
The company formed to make the bid is known as Verwaltung Hamburgische Seefahrtsbeteiligung Albert Ballin GmbH and takes its name from Albert Ballin, who at the beginning of the 20th century made the former Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt- Actiengesellschaft (Hapag) the world's largest shipping line.
We won't be able to spend billions for Hapag-Lloyd,'' Freytag said. He didn't rule out Hamburg increasing its 200,000- euro investment in future. The bidding group is seeking more investors to make a joint bid, the senator added.