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Orient Overseas stock jumped as much as 12 percent, the biggest intraday gain since March 2011.
The company has a market value of about HK$26.8 billion ($3.5 billion).
A representative at COSCO Shipping’s media relations department said the company wasn’t aware of the bidding.
Evergreen Marine’s president and spokesman Lee Mong-jye couldn’t immediately be reached at his office for a comment.
Representatives for Orient Overseas and CMA CGM didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
Asian container lines, faced with a prolonged trade slowdown and depressed freight rates, are set for further consolidation in 2017 as firms continue joining forces, the head of Danish industry behemoth AP Moller-Maersk A/S and the chief of Hyundai Merchant Marine Co have said.
“The industry has seen a lot of consolidation and OOCL is among the last few that has a certain scale,” said Rahul Kapoor, a director at Drewry Financial Research Services Ltd in Singapore.
Last year saw the collapse of South Korea’s Hanjin Shipping Co, a mega merger among Japanese rivals and the sale of Singapore’s shipping flagship, Neptune Orient Lines Ltd to CMA CGM.
An overly optimistic expectation of a trade recovery following the 2008-09 global financial crisis, prompted shipping companies to order ever-larger vessels, with some stretching longer than the Eiffel Tower.
As capacity piled up, the companies tried to under-bid each other on freight rates to lure clients, causing shipping rates to
Source: China Daily
