A.P. Moller Announcement

[Phil English]

A.P. Moller have today issued the following statement cencerning the takeover of P&O Nedlloyd:

A. P. Møller - Mærsk A/S is pleased to announce that the acquisition of Royal P&O Nedlloyd N.V. is being completed today. All conditions to the offer have been fulfilled and payment for the tendered shares will be made today.

Management
Philip Green, Royal P&O Nedlloyd CEO, and David Robbie, Royal P&O Nedlloyd CFO, will step down. Philip Green will assist and work with A. P. Møller - Mærsk A/S for a period during the integration. David Robbie has decided to leave shortly after settlement.

Eric Sisco, current Managing Director of Maersk España S.A. and Area Manager of Maersk’s Iberia and Morocco Area (Spain, Portugal, and Morocco), will assume the position as CEO of Royal P&O Nedlloyd N.V.

Commercial arrangements
P&O Nedlloyd will give notice of withdrawal to specified consortia and conferences shortly. Until February 2006 P&O Nedlloyd and Maersk Sealand will continue to operate as separate shipping lines. This is to offer customers stability of network and services throughout the coming peak season, to keep services and network intact throughout this year, and to honour P&O Nedlloyd’s commitments to various conferences and consortia.

Brand name
After February 2006, Maersk Sealand and P&O Nedlloyd will be branded under the new name of Maersk Line. Maersk Logistics and P&O Nedlloyd Logistics will be integrated under the brand name of Maersk Logistics.

The full integration will be completed in stages and is expected to be completed by the end of 2006.

[Ship's Cat]

I wonder what effect this is going to have on Southampton (as it's my nearest port, as well as biased I'm a bit concerned). P&O Nedlloyd are Southampton's biggest container customer and as Maersk pulled out of the port a few years ago, I hope they don't take away the ex-P&O Nedlloyd ships in 2006 as that would be a disaster considering we have already lost Hyundai and Hamburg Sud over the past year. :-?

[Peter]

Mr Stubkjaer :
Quote
A knock-on effect of the merger is likely to be some changes in P&O Nedlloyd's
ports of call. AP MØller-Maersk has its own terminals business and third
party relationships with port operators.
Britain could be one area affected because P&O Nedlloyd's main port of call
is Southampton whereas Maersk Sealand's hub is Felixstowe.
"Both are important ports," Mr Stubkjaer said. "It is early days, but I
could imagine that we remain calling at both ports."
unquote

[Ship's Cat]

That sounds a bit more promising. Thanks.