Neptune in search of $5-B loan

HONG KONG—Neptune Orient Lines Ltd., Southeast Asia’s largest sea cargo carrier, is seeking to borrow at least $5 billion for a potential bid to buy TUI AG’s container shipping line, three people familiar with the deal said.

The Singapore-based company is in talks with lenders to raise between $5 billion and $6 billion, said the people, who declined to be identified because the information isn’t public. Paul Barrett, Neptune Orient’s spokesman, declined to comment.

Neptune will be competing with Alecta, a Swedish pension fund, M.M. Warburg & Co., the German city-state of Hamburg and billionaire Klaus-Michael Kuehne for TUI’s Hapag-Lloyd AG unit.

TUI, formed through mergers between marine and tourism assets, gave in to investor pressure in March and said Hapag would likely be sold after months of reported interest from Temasek Holdings Pte., Singapore’s state investment company. Der Spiegel reported TUI wouldn’t promise Temasek control. Germany may join the US, whose lawmakers forced Dubai’s DP World to sell terminals in 2006, in blocking a foreign attempt to control port assets.

Hamburg’s government said in April that the port city might consider buying the shipping line to protect jobs. Hanover, Germany-based TUI, Europe’s biggest tour operator, is seeking a buyer for Hapag-Lloyd, which analysts have said may be worth €5.4 billion ($8.4 billion). Reuters and Dow Jones reported earlier this year that Singapore’s Neptune is interested.

Temasek owns 66 percent of Neptune, whose shares have fallen 17 percent this year. (Bloomberg)

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Neptune in search of $5-B loan

HONG KONG—Neptune Orient Lines Ltd., Southeast Asia’s largest sea cargo carrier, is seeking to borrow at least $5 billion for a potential bid to buy TUI AG’s container shipping line, three people familiar with the deal said.