The main shareholder and the chairman of Maersk supported the management’s attempts to reshape the business, despite the fact that other investors are worried regarding the rate of progress. Namely, Maersk is considered a ‘supertanker’ that needs a long time to turn around, Ane Maersk Mc-Kinney Uggla, chairwoman of the A.P. Moller Foundation, believes.
Maersk has found problem convincing all of its investors for the major restructuring plan that was announced two years ago, in September 2016. This plan aims to review its expanding businesses and focus its attention on transport and logistics.
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Indicative of the problems that Maersk is facing, is the fact that shares in the company, led by Chief Executive Soren Skou since June 2016, are 7% lower over the last year, Reuters reports.
In the same wavelength, Danish pension fund ATP, which held 1.4% of Maersk’s share capital as of the end of 2018, said that it is difficult for investors to assess if the strategy is moving in the right direction. The company also added that there are not indicators to show where the logistics and terminal business will be in three years time.
Moreover, Maersk warned in February that growth in the number of shipping containers that are transported around the world would get worse in 2019 because of the trade war between the US and China. Under this aspect, Maersk board chairman Jim Hagemann Snabe noted that external factors affected the company financially in 2018.
However, he added that despite the problems, there are signs that the transformation has started to work, as the company has seen ‘a very positive development in customer satisfaction’.
In addition, Maersk will hold hold back on dividends for now, because it aspires to become financially strong. Nonetheless, it would assess in August if it would pay out an extraordinary dividend.
