* To split into transport and logistics and energy divisions
* JVs, mergers or listings options for energy businesses
* Shares up 3.4 percent (Releads, adds chairman comments, updates shares)
By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen
COPENHAGEN, Sept 22 (Reuters) - The world's biggest shippingfirm, A.P. Moller-Maersk, set a new course onThursday that will see the $30 billion firm bulk up itstransport business while seeking alliances or a separate listingfor its energy operations.
Low freight rates and oversupply have rocked the containershipping sector, with South Korea's Hanjin Shipping Co Ltd forced into receivership last month, stranding anestimated $14 billion in cargo on its ships.
Maersk, with a fleet of more than 600 ships, will focus itsattention on building up its transport and logistics operationsdespite these problems, while creating a separate energydivision combining Maersk Oil and three related companies.
The latter will be split from the main company individuallyor in combination "in the form of joint-ventures, mergers orlisting", within two years Maersk, which is controlled by theMaersk family and was founded in 1904 by A.P. Moller, said.
The spin-off should allow Maersk to shed any conglomeratediscount by allowing markets to value each of its businesses.
Estimates for the sum of the parts vary, with Denmark'sSydbank saying the Transport and Logistics division could beworth $26-$35 billion and the Energy division possibly $11-$23billion, while Barclays analysts say a standalone Maersk Oilwould currently have a market value of around $4.7 billion.
"Separating our transport and logistics businesses and ouroil and oil related businesses...will enable both to focus ontheir respective markets. Both face very different underlyingfundamentals and competitive environments," Chairman MichaelPram Rasmussen said in a statement.
The shake-up will be led by Soren Skou, the 52-year-oldchief executive of Maersk Line who became group CEO in June. He will lead the new Transport and Logistics division, while MaerskDrilling boss Claus V. Hemmingsen will head the Energy unit.
Shares in Maersk, which have risen by more than 20 percentsince June in anticipation of the strategic review, climbed 3.4percent on the news and were at 10,240 crowns at 1516 GMT.
PAIN-FREE SOLUTION
Some analysts and investor, however, said the 112-year-oldcompany had not gone far enough.
"It might be one of the most pain-free solutions relative toother scenarios, but they could have gone even further,"Nykredit analyst Ricky Rasmussen said, suggesting the groupcould have been cut into four units.
The weak shipping market has hit the top companies whichhave invested heavily in "mega-ships", largely to operate on themain Asia to Europe trade route, with industry analystsquestioning whether there is enough work for them
Otto Friedrichsen, equity strategist at Danish asset managerFormuepleje, with around 45 billion Danish crowns allocated inbonds and equities, has shunned the shipping industry includingMaersk, and was sceptical about the split.
"I still want to see changes in the underlying markets anddon't see this as creating any value here and now."
Maersk's second-quarter group net profit of $101 million waswell below the $196 million expected by analysts.
"We had a quite poor second quarter, but some players haveit much worse than we do, which we also saw with Hanjin,"Rasmussen told Reuters after the split was announced.
South Korea's Hanjin Shipping Co Ltd, theworld's seventh largest container carrier, filed for courtreceivership in late August.
Rasmussen expects a recent wave of consolidation tointensify, and told Reuters that Maersk is ready to use its cashreserves of close to $12 billion to buy up competitors.
"The Chinese shipping companies are now uniting forcesbecause they are under pressure. In the long run, no one findsit amusing to run a loss-making business," Rasmussen said.
Clustered with Maersk Line in the Transport and Logisticsdivision will be APM Terminals, Damco, Svitzer and MaerskContainer Industry, which together accounted for more than 75percent of the group's first-half revenue.
Maersk Oil and related firms such as Maersk Drilling havegrappled with stubbornly low oil prices which remain 60 percentbelow mid-2014 levels.
Grouping the two energy firms with Maersk Supply Service andMaersk Tankers was a positive first step toward exiting thesector, said analyst Morten Imsgard at Sydbank.
"It was as far as Maersk could go right now, because theycould not have a ready-made solution for the energy division inthese markets, if they also want to realise a decent price forthe assets," he said.
"Maersk Oil...is a small player, so there are many playersbig enough to take (it) in. (Maersk) Drilling is relativelylarge, but its competitors are under extreme financial pressure,so it's less likely to find an sale opportunity there."
Earlier banking sources told Reuters that Maersk was intalks to buy a portfolio of North Sea oil assets from RoyalDutch Shell as it considers scaling up the oil and gasbusiness ahead of a spin-off.
(Additional reporting by Annabella Pultz Nielsen and NikolajSkydsgaard in Copenhagen and Jonathan Saul in London,; Editingby Jason Neely and Alexander Smith)
