Rumours - talk of P&O Ferries interest

Strong market speculation circulating in London suggests that DP World, which is expected to complete its takeover of P&O Ferries on the 2nd March, has received a number of unsolicited approaches concerning the purchase of the P&O Ferries business.

One shipping analyst told Fairplay:

"I am not surprised at all that such approaches have supposedly been made. Given that DP World's key business is port operations, the P&O Ferries activity could be seen to be hived off."

The speculation suggested names such as Macquarie Bank, which has acquired two UK ferry companies, WightLink and the Isle of Man Steam Packet Co, over the past year. A number of other private equity groups were also linked to the approaches. For its part, DP World says it has no plans to sell off the ferry business but as more than one analyst suggested, selling the ferry side would remove an operation that has been through a difficult time over the past few years and allow it to focus totally on growing the ports business.