State-controlled NOL's offer to buy Hapag in a deal estimated to be worth up to five billion euros (S$10.4bn) has caused concern and protests in Germany,
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Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) – German shipping group Hapag-Lloyd would benefit from a takeover by NOL, as did US container group APL when it was bought by the Singapore firm, the Financial Times yesterday quoted NOL's CEO as saying. State-controlled NOL's offer to buy Hapag in a deal estimated to be worth up to five billion euros (S$10.4bn) has caused concern and protests in Germany, not least about possible job cuts. The German government has welcomed a bid by a group of Hamburg-based investors to keep the firm, a unit of travel company TUI, in German hands. NOL bought American President Lines in 1997 and has kept the brand name for its core container shipping business. CEO Ron Widdows, who took over as CEO last month after the abrupt exit of German-born CEO Thomas Held, joined NOL at the time of the APL takeover. The fact that NOL is 66% owned by Singapore's investment company Temasek Holdings has added to the controversy in Germany. On Tuesday, nearly 300 Hapag-Lloyd workers protested outside Singapore's Berlin embassy against the possible deal, a day before the Cabinet is due to pass a law to shield domestic firms from foreign buyers.
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Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) – German shipping group Hapag-Lloyd would benefit from a takeover by NOL, as did US container group APL when it was bought by the Singapore firm, the Financial Times yesterday quoted NOL's CEO as saying. State-controlled NOL's offer to buy Hapag in a deal estimated to be worth up to five billion euros (S$10.4bn) has caused concern and protests in Germany, not least about possible job cuts. The German government has welcomed a bid by a group of Hamburg-based investors to keep the firm, a unit of travel company TUI, in German hands. NOL bought American President Lines in 1997 and has kept the brand name for its core container shipping business. CEO Ron Widdows, who took over as CEO last month after the abrupt exit of German-born CEO Thomas Held, joined NOL at the time of the APL takeover. The fact that NOL is 66% owned by Singapore's investment company Temasek Holdings has added to the controversy in Germany. On Tuesday, nearly 300 Hapag-Lloyd workers protested outside Singapore's Berlin embassy against the possible deal, a day before the Cabinet is due to pass a law to shield domestic firms from foreign buyers.
