A.P. Moller-Maersk Makes Bid for Dutch Rival

Danish shipping company A.P. Moller-Maersk said Wednesday that it would offer 2.3 billion euros ($2.96 billion) to take over smaller Dutch rival Royal P&O; Nedlloyd.

The conditional offer of 57 euros ($73) a share was recommended by the board of Royal P&O; Nedlloyd, the Danish company said.

The Danish group owns Maersk Sealand, the world’s largest shipping company, which has more than 300 container vessels and 750,000 containers.

Maersk Sealand is the largest tenant at the Port of Los Angeles and occupies space on a man-made island in the middle of San Pedro Harbor called Pier 400. The port had been in negotiations with P&O; Nedlloyd on a deal to lease its shipping berths 206 to 209, which amounts to about 80 acres. P&O; Nedlloyd had signed an agreement this year on a five-year lease on the property.

Port officials said it was too soon for them to know what effect the acquisition might have on the deal.

P&O; Nedlloyd, the world’s fourth-largest provider of container shipping services by fleet capacity, operates a fleet of 156 container ships and 428,000 containers.

“The container industry is booming at the moment. We see gigantic growth in Asia, specifically in China,” P&O; Nedlloyd’s executive board member Rutger van Slobbe told Dutch television.

Brian Boersting, an analyst with Denmark’s Jyske Bank, said other shipping groups could make counter-bids for P&O; Nedlloyd, forcing A.P. Moller-Maersk to increase its offer.

However, Maersk Sealand Vice President Eivind Kolding said the Danish offer was “sufficient to make the deal go through.”