AP Moller-Maersk has revealed it is to sell a $3.1 billion stake in Denmark’s largest retail stores Dansk Supermarked and F Salling, according to news agency Reuters.
The sale comes as part of a five year plan to realign the company’s wide reaching business portfolio with its five core business areas – Maersk Oil, Maersk Drilling, Maersk Line, port operator APM Terminals and Maersk’s shipping division.
Maersk said it was selling 48.7% of Dansk Supermarked, which owns 1,200 supermarkets in Scandinavia, Germany and Poland, and 18.7% of department store chain F. Salling, for a total of $3.1billion. The deal includes an option for Maersk to sell its remaining 19 percent stake in both retailers after five years.
In the short term the company will reduce its net debt, which was $12.1 billion at the end of September.
Chief Executive Nils Smedegaard Andersen declined to comment on Maersk’s long-term plans for cash generated by the share sales, but told Reuters that the company was not in any rush to ear mark the funds.
“We don’t have any acquisition plans. This is not part of a financing scheme. We have a very strong balance sheet,” he told Reuters.
The announcement comes hot on the heels of earlier developments in which Maersk agreed to sell 15 very large crude carriers to Belgium’s Euronav for $980 million. The company is also in the process of selling its 31.3% stake in Danish ferry shipping company DFDS.
