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Hapag-Lloyd IPO closes without fireworks

After several months of tweaks and setbacks, Hapag-Lloyd’s initial public offering launched on the Frankfurt and Hamburg stock exchanges today but saw a disappointing performance, with shares advancing in value by just 0.55% between market open and close. 

The stock opened at €20.05 per share, but fell back to its issue price of €20.00 within minutes, before rebounding to the day’s high of €20.38 at around 09:35hrs (local time).

Today’s total trading volume was around 1,612,363 shares, worth around €32,505,238 based on the closing price of €20.16 per share. 

The Germany-based container line had initially set out to raise 500m from the listing but readjusted the target to 300m last week in response to “ongoing market volatility”.

On Wednesday, the carrier priced the IPO at 20.00 per share, at the lowest end of its 20-22 bookbuilding range.

The offering itself consisted of a total of up to 13,228,677 shares at the offer price, a slight reduction on the 15.7m shares mooted previously, which had included 11.5m in new stock.

In addition, up to 1,984,301 shares owned by Hapag-Lloyd’s major shareholder TUI-Hapag Beteiligungs (TUI) were allotted to cover potential over allotments, but TUI did not have an additional shares placement option. The arrangement effectively blocked TUI from selling any of its existing 14% holding, except to cover excess demand.

Hapag-Lloyd’s major shareholders Kühne Maritime and Compañía Sud Americana de Vapores (CSAV) earlier committed themselves to each buying tranches of shares worth $30m (around 1.4m shares each, based on €20 per share).

“It was a tough fight,” Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd, told reporters as the market opened in Frankfurt. In a statement released this morning, the CEO said the company was “satisfied with the interest of investors and the demand for our shares”.

Habben Jansen and his CFO Nicolás Burr opened trading this morning by jointly ringing their own 200-pound bronze ship’s bell on the trading floor in Frankfurt.

Holly Birkett

Holly is Splash's Online Editor and correspondent for the UK and Mediterranean. She has been a maritime journalist since 2010, and has written for and edited several trade publications. She is currently studying for membership of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers. In 2013, Holly won the Seahorse Club's Social Media Journalist of the Year award. She is currently based in London.
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