HAMBURG (dpa-AFX) - Hamburg-based shipping line Hapag-Lloyd's plans to buy into South Korean shipping company Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) have fallen through. "We are out of this process," Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen said Monday. Hapag-Lloyd would have been a good partner for the world's eighth-largest shipping company, the head of the world's fifth-largest shipping company expressed his conviction. But now, he said, the South Koreans have decided to pursue their goal with other parties. "I think that's fine." It was clear from the start that this could happen, Habben Jansen said.

HMM has 71 large containerships, about 790,000 standard containers (TEUs) and a 2.9 percent market share, according to industry service Alphaliner. HMM operates primarily on Pacific routes, where Hapag-Lloyd does not have as strong a presence. The Hamburg-based shipping line, with its 257 large container ships, nearly 1.9 million TEU and a market share of 6.8 percent, operates mainly on the Atlantic, but has recently also made gains in the Middle East and African business.

Hapag-Lloyd wanted to take over 38.9 percent of the HMM shares, which the state-owned Koranic banks KDB and KCOB want to sell. The two shipping companies have known each other for a long time, working together as partners in "The Alliance" shipping association, for example. Habben Jansen said there is now no rush to find other investment candidates. "We certainly have no urgency to do anything in the foreseeable future." He said nothing about the reasons for the withdrawal. Now HMM has only Korean bidders, according to media reports./klm/DP/ngu