AP Møller-Maersk, the 112-year-old Danish conglomerate that has interests in shipping and oil, is considering breaking itself into two parts amid falling prices in both of its business units. “But playing around with the corporate structure is not going to be sufficient for Maersk: it needs to discover growth as well,”
Financial Times
columnist Richard Milne wrote.
Milne noted in his column that Soren Skou, who became CEO in late June, “owes his position to what insiders call a ‘struggle of wills' that pitted chairman Michael Pram Rasmussen and the family that controls the company against its last chief executive, Nils Andersen. Mr. Andersen lost and was fired.”
Skou has headed Maersk Line, the shipping unit, since 2012 and will continue to lead it, the article said. Since early 2012, Skou has cut costs at the unit by 39%, Milne wrote.
Andersen sold off the company's stakes in Denmark's largest bank and supermarket, which had been “symbols of [Maersk's] role as the country's pre-eminent company,” Milne wrote.
The container shipping industry has been consolidating, and “Maersk, like its peers, is likely to turn to acquisitions,” Milne wrote. He noted, however, that Maersk “botched” integration of P&O Nedlloyd, which it acquired in 2005. (Source:
Financial Times
, Aug. 25, 2016.)
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