Hapag-Lloyd to launch IPO valued at over $5.5bn

© Khunaspix Dreamstime.

The world’s fourth-largest shipping line is pressing ahead with its plans to partially list on the Frankfurt stock exchange, possibly as early as the autumn, according to sources interviewed in this Wall Street Journal article. Three lead banks are understood to have been appointed to arrange the listing, which will “provide Hapag-Lloyd with cash to reduce its relatively high net debt of €3.35bn and help it to play an active role in ongoing industry consolidation, bankers said, pointing to Singapore’s rival Neptune Orient Lines as a potential partner”.