Maersk raises US$704 million from debt market to repay banks

DANISH shipping giant AP Moller-Maersk has again gone to the debt market to raise US$704 million in two bond issues.
The issue was placed by Danske Bank, Nordea and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken and will be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.
The parent company of Maersk Line raised $1.6 billion in September from a share sale to institutional investors in the US, UK and Scandinavia, after which there was the $1.15 billion issue in October.
The money from the latest bond issue will go to general corporate purposes and repayment of long-term debt to banks, whose facilities will remain open as liquidity buffers, the company said.
The tone and tenor of this issue is markedly different from that of the October application, when AP Moller-Maersk`s spoke of using the money to build a war chest to fund acquisitions.
Maersk chief executive Nils Andersen now says the company will shift away from spending on containerships to oil and gas, container terminals and retailing.