The offer period for Hapag-Lloyd’s initial public offering (IPO) has been extended by a week to November 3, the company said today.
The period was originally scheduled to close today; trading was slated to commence Friday.
The Germany-based container line had originally suggested a price range of €23-29 per share to prospective investors, but sources told Reuters that weak demand means the shares will likely be priced at the lower end of this price range.
On Monday, Hapag-Lloyd released a statement to reassure potential investors, in the wake of Maersk Group’s $600m profit warning issued on October 23. “In response to queries received following Maersk’s update, Hapag-Lloyd reiterates its outlook for 2015 as provided in the IPO prospectus,” Hapag-Lloyd said.
“Based on current trading, the EBITDA margin in September is expected to be in line with the information provided in the IPO prospectus for July and August. For the full-year 2015 the outlook remains unchanged, Hapag-Lloyd is expecting a high single-digit EBITDA margin,” the carrier said.
The line posted EBITDA of €125.2m in July and August 2015, giving a margin of 8.5% and net profit of €2.1m, according to its IPO prospectus, published October 14.
Hapag-Lloyd said today it would publish a supplement to the prospectus “in due course”.
