(Yicai Global) Aug. 26 -- China’s biggest shipping container manufacturer China International Marine Containers has withdrawn its offer to acquire Maersk Container Industry, the cold chain equipment business of Danish shipping giant A.P.Møller–Mærsk, over ‘great’ concerns that the merger would not pass an international anti-monopoly review.

After careful and thorough consideration, both parties agreed that the takeover is not likely to pass a merger review by the US Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, Shenzhen, southern Guangdong province-based CIMC said yesterday. CIMC is in negotiations with Copenhagen-based Maersk on its indemnity obligations for cancelling the contract, it said.

In September last year, CIMC agreed to pay USD1.1 billion to acquire Maersk Container Industry and Maersk Container Industry Qingdao in order to ramp up its cold storage container output. All clearances needed from anti-monopoly authorities in order to conclude the transaction were specified at the time.

The merger was intended to help CIMC boost revenue by achieving one-stop sales and services of marine reefer boxes. In the long run, it will also help CIMC enter other cold chain logistics areas such as refrigerated trucks and portable cold storage units, it added.

CIMC posted a 24.6 percent leap in profit last year from the year before to CNY6.7 billion (USD977.4 million), according to its latest annual report. Revenue surged 73.9 percent to CNY163.7 billion (USD23.9 billion).

Little affected by the news, CIMC’s mainland-listed shares [SHE:000039] were trading down 1.3 percent at CNY8.42 (USD1.20) as of lunch break today. The stock has lost 23 percent of its value since the start of the year. Its Hong Kong stock [HKG:2039] was trading flat at HKD7.02 (USD0.89).

Editor: Kim Taylor