NOL Not For Sale

According to Drewry Company UK, Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) is not for sale. Its majority stockholder Temasek Holdings claims it is not selling the global box line.

NOL is owned by the Singaporean government, but it has it has been losing money and is heavily in debt. NOL has a modern fleet but their construction came at high costs. Its 14,000 TEU vessels each cost about $130 million to build.

Temasek is the Singapore government’s investment company with a portfolio valued at $194 billion as of March 31. Last year the company generated $17.5 billion. Meanwhile, NOL has been posting losses a few years and it is not an attractive prospect for sale as the industry has been on hard times. NOL posted a loss of $143 million on revenue of $7 billion.

Temasek sold APL Logistics in February to Japanese shipping firm Kintetsu World Express for $1.2 billion. APL operates in more than 110 countries and ranks No. 14 on Transport Topics’ list of the Top 50 Logistics Companies in North America. Its U.S. operations is based in Scottsdale, Arizona. APL provides air and ocean freight forwarding, warehousing and distribution, customs brokerage, dedicated contract carriage and supply chain consulting services. APL Logistics generated earnings before interest and taxes of $67 million on revenue of $1.7 billion in 2014. About two-thirds of APL’s revenue comes from the United States, with 27 percent coming from Asia and the Middle East and 11% from Europe.

In terms of market capitalization, NOL ranks just 38th out of Temasek’s 45 major investments. As owner of the PSA International, Temasek is invested in Singapore’s new 65 million TEU mega port, which is scheduled to be ready in 2021.