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Investor Kuehne warns Maersk off Hapag-Lloyd stake

Tue Nov 11, 2008 4:41pm EST

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BERLIN, Nov 11 (Reuters) - German investor Klaus-Michael Kuehne, who acquired a major holding in shipping group Hapag-Lloyd, said on Tuesday he had no plans to sell a stake in the firm to Danish rival Maersk Line (MAERSKb.CO).

Maersk Line Chief Executive Officer Eivind Kolding told a German paper over the weekend that he was not ruling out a bid for Hapag-Lloyd, which tourist firm TUI last month sold for 4.45 billion euros ($5.7 billion) to an investor group led by Kuehne.

Kuehne said he would hold a 25.1 percent blocking minority in Hapag-Lloyd after the deal was announced, and told a panel discussion in Berlin entitled "How national should the German economy be?" that he had no plans to give Maersk a stake.

"This is not being discussed," he said. "We want (Hapag-Lloyd) to remain as pure-bred German as possible."

(Reporting by Dave Graham, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)



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