Neptune Orient Lines Limited News

CMA CGM S.A has crossed the compulsory acquisition ownership threshold in Neptune Orient Lines Limited (NOL). Following its all-cash voluntary conditional general offer (Offer) for NOL which was launched on June 6th, 2016, CMA CGM now owns 2,376,715,557 shares representing approximately 91.28% of NOL’s share capital. CMA CGM confirms that it intends to exercise its rights of compulsory acquisition to compulsorily acquire all the NOL shares held by NOL shareholders who have not accepted the Offer, at a price equal to the Offer Price of SGD1.30, in accordance with the Companies Act (Chapter 50 of Singapore). CMA CGM will therefore exercise its rights to compulsorily acquire the remaining NOL shares as soon as practicable after the close of the Offer.

Container shipper CMA CGM S.A. has crossed the 90 percent ownership threshold in Neptune Orient Lines Limited (NOL), enabling it to bring the Singapore company private. Following its all-cash voluntary conditional general offer (Offer) for NOL which was launched on June 6, 2016, CMA CGM now owns 2,361,044,044 shares representing approximately 90.68 percent of NOL’s share capital. With the public float of NOL shares now falling below the minimum threshold of 10 percent, the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (SGX-ST) may suspend the trading of NOL shares at the close of the Offer. In the event of a trading suspension, CMA CGM does not intend to take steps for the suspension to be lifted. In addition, CMA CGM intends to have NOL delisted from the Main Board of the SGX-ST.

Following the satisfaction and waiver (as the case may be) of the conditions set forth in the pre-conditional offer announcement dated 7 December 2015, CMA CGM S.A. (CMA CGM), announced its firm intention to make an all-cash voluntary conditional general offer (Offer) for all the outstanding shares of Neptune Orient Lines Limited (NOL), other than those it already owns, controls or has agreed to acquire. The Offer Price is SGD 1.30 in cash per NOL share, which CMA CGM does not intend to increase. Further details of the Offer are set out in the Offer Announcement dated 30 May 2016, and will be set out in the Composite Document, which will comprise the Offer document and NOL's circular to its shareholders…

Moody's Investors Service has today changed to stable from positive the outlook on CMA CGM S.A.'s B1 corporate family rating, B1-PD probability of default rating and B3 senior unsecured rating. Concurrently, Moody's has affirmed the ratings assigned to the company. This follows CMA CGM's announcement of a pre-conditional voluntary general cash offer to acquire Neptune Orient Lines Limited (NOL, unrated), a Singaporean container liner, for a consideration of $2.4 billion. Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited (Aaa stable), NOL's largest shareholder with a 67% stake, has irrevocably undertaken to tender all of its shares into the offer. "While the affirmation reflects that CMA CGM's potential acquisition of NOL would strengthen its business profile…

CMA CGM confirms that it has entered into exclusive discussions with Neptune Orient Lines Limited (NOL) and Lentor Investments Pte. Ltd. (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited), its controlling shareholder, with respect to a potential combination with NOL. The exclusivity period is expected to run until December 7th, 2015. Should these discussions lead to an agreement, such a combination would contribute to the consolidation of the container shipping industry, at a time when scale is more critical than ever. It would further reinforce CMA CGM as a global force in container shipping, leveraging the strong geographic and operational complementarity of both groups.

APL Ltd. to Pay $9.8 Million to Resolve Alleged False Claims Under the Department of Defense Shipping Contract. APL Limited has agreed to pay the government $9.8 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act in connection with a contract to provide GPS tracking of shipping containers in Afghanistan, the Justice Department announced today. APL, an ocean carrier based in Scottsdale, Arizona, is a wholly-owned American subsidiary of Singapore-based Neptune Orient Lines Limited. The Department of Defense contract required APL to affix a satellite tracking device to each shipping container transported from Karachi, Pakistan to U.S. military bases in Afghanistan when the Department of Defense (DOD) requested the tracking services.

Neptune Orient Lines sells APL Logistics to Kintetsu World Express   Neptune Orient Lines Limited (NOL) announced that it has completed the sale of its logistics business, APL Logistics Ltd (APLL), to Kintetsu World Express, Inc. (KWE) for an aggregate purchase price of $1.2 billion, subject to adjustments for the net cash and net working capital of APLL and its subsidiaries as at the completion date.   NOL said it will announce the final purchase price after such adjustments have been determined.

SINGAPORE, TOKYO, 17 February 2015 – Neptune Orient Lines Limited (“NOL”) and Kintetsu World Express, Inc. (“KWE”), jointly announced today that they have entered into a sale and purchase agreement for NOL’s logistics business, APL Logistics, for US$1.2 billion. “This is a strategic move that will allow us to focus on improving our liner shipping business, while at the same time enabling APL Logistics to grow. The transaction will also strengthen our balance sheet and unlock value for our shareholders,” said Ng Yat Chung, Group President and CEO of NOL. NOL said that the divestment of APL Logistics follows a robust and highly competitive process, and that the net proceeds of the sale will be applied to strengthen its financial position, including to repay its borrowings.

Seven directors were elected to the Board of the UK P&I Club at its AGM in Athens on the 27th October. After obtaining a postgraduate degree in industrial engineering, Ibrahim Güngen founded Güngen Foreign Trade Co Ltd with his brother Mehmet in 1976 and the business quickly became the biggest importer of molasses in Turkey. Mr Güngen has been chief executive officer of Güngen Maritime and Trading since 1990. Dr Grahaeme Henderson, aged 56, joined Shell following a PhD in Engineering from Southampton University in 1980.

Neptune Orient Lines Limited (NOL) announced the appointment of international business figure Robert J. Herbold to the company’s Board of Directors, effective 1 February 2010. From 1994 to 2001, Herbold was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Microsoft Corporation. After retiring in 2001, Mr Herbold worked half-time for Microsoft until 2003 as Executive Vice President assisting in government, industry, and customer issues. Prior to joining Microsoft, Herbold spent 26 years at The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G). In his last five years with P&G he served as its Senior Vice President of Marketing. Currently, Herbold is the Managing Director of Herbold Group, LLC, a consulting business focused on profitability.

Neptune Orient Lines Limited (NOL), the parent company of container shipping line APL and of APL Logistics, announced a package of measures to place the company on a more sustainable footing through an expected severe and prolonged downturn in global container shipping. The actions to be taken will bring the organisation into line with the reduced capacity the company will be operating as a result of initiatives announced on 21 October 2008. The capacity reductions will lower the NOL Group’s vessel network costs by about US$200 million in 2009 (This figure includes some fixed vessel and charter hire costs). NOL said it did not see a recovery from the challenging conditions for quite some time and the potential exists for them to persist for the next few years.

Neptune Orient Lines Limited (NOL) confirmed it has submitted a binding bid to acquire the Hapag-Lloyd container shipping business. NOL submitted its bid to acquire Hapag-Lloyd to the company’s owner TUI AG on 26 September 2008. Any agreement would be subject to the acceptance of the bid by TUI, regulatory approvals and shareholders’ approval.

Neptune Orient Lines Limited (NOL) has been invited to continue into the next phase of the bidding process for the sale of the Hapag-Lloyd container shipping business. NOL submitted an indicative non-binding bid to acquire Hapag-Lloyd to the company’s owner TUI AG on 21 July 2008. Any agreement would be subject to, among other steps, due diligence, submission and acceptance of NOL’s final bid, regulatory approvals and NOL shareholders’ approvals. If successful, NOL would integrate its APL container shipping business with Hapag-Lloyd, which would create the world’s third-largest container carrier. While the process is underway, NOL will be bound by strict confidentiality undertakings, which legally restrict the company’s ability to share information.

Neptune Orient Lines Limited announced the appointment of Eng Aik Meng as President of its APL container shipping unit. Mr. Eng will shortly rejoin NOL from Singapore-headquartered diversified shipping and industrial supply chain company IMC Corp Group, where he is currently Deputy Chief Executive Officer and, concurrently, Managing Director of its Aurora Tankers business. Previously, from 1993 to June 2007, Mr. Eng served with NOL in a variety of roles. He was Senior Vice President of APL’s Intra-Asia business from 2002 to 2007.

Neptune Orient Lines Limited (NOL) confirmed that it has submitted an indicative non-binding bid to acquire the Hapag-Lloyd container shipping business. A completed transaction would result in the integration of NOL’s container shipping business APL with Hapag-Lloyd. The combination would create the world’s third-largest container carrier. In its release, NOL said that it is at this stage premature to state whether the indicative non-binding bid will lead to a definitive transaction. Any agreement would be subject to, among other steps, due diligence, acceptance of final bid, regulatory approvals and NOL shareholders’ approvals. Details of the proposal are confidential and commercially sensitive.

Neptune Orient Lines Limited announced that, by mutual agreement with the Board of Directors, Dr Thomas Held has stepped down from the position of Group President and Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) of the company and that Mr Ronald Widdows has been appointed as the new Group President and CEO. Dr Held has also resigned from, and Mr Widdows has been appointed a member of, the NOL Board of Directors. The changes have immediate effect. Mr Widdows is currently the CEO of NOL’s container shipping business APL, and has held this position since 2003. Dr Held has been CEO of NOL since November 2006 and brought to the Group extensive experience of global logistics.

The Chairman of Neptune Orient Lines Limited (NOL), Cheng Wai Keung, announced the appointment of Dr. 2006. Dr. Held will also be appointed a member of the NOL Board of Directors. Dr Held is a German national, whose most recent appointment was as Chairman and CEO of European-headquartered Schenker AG, one of the world’s leading providers of integrated logistics services. He served in this role for three years before stepping down in January 2006 following Schenker’s value-creating acquisition of the North America-based freight forwarder Bax Global. “The NOL Board considers Thomas Held to be one of the world’s outstanding transportation industry leaders and we are delighted to have an executive of his stature joining our company as CEO,” Cheng said.

Neptune Orient Lines Limited (NOL) has revised the full year outlook for its 2002 financial results. “Our statement at the interim results in September that, although still recording a loss, we expected the second half of 2002 to be better than the first half remains correct at the operating level. However, exceptional items will significantly affect the overall bottom- line,” NOL Chairman Cheng Wai Keung said. Cheng said that exceptional items could amount to about $110 million. He said this reflected an impact of $8 million from industrial disruption last year on the West Coast of the United States; $14 million additional write-down of goodwill…