Hapag-Lloyd owner says IPO not likely before 2014
German container shipping firm Hapag-Lloyd is unlikely to be able to float the company on the stock market until 2014, one of its major shareholders said in a newspaper interview published on Thursday, Reuters reports.
"In the short-term there will be no flotation because the performance of container shipping firms in general is not too good," Klaus Michael Kuehne told German business paper Handelsblatt.
The city of Hamburg holds close to 37 percent of Hapag-Lloyd, while Kuehne, who also controls Swiss logistics group Kuehne & Nagel (KNIN.VX) owns just over 28 percent.
A further 22 percent is held by German tourism group TUI AG (TUIGn.DE), which controls Europe's largest tour operator TUI Travel (TT.L) and is looking to sell its stake in Hapag-Lloyd, either via a share offer or a direct sale.
Kuehne said it would make sense to merge Hapag-Lloyd with rival German shipper Hamburg-Sued, but said that Hamburg-Sued's owner, the Oetker Group, was not open to mergers.
"But we are talking with other shippers," he added. He said Singaporean Neptune Orient Lines (NEPS.SI) or other Asian firms would be compatible, but that they would want a majority stake, which he was not prepared to give up.