SINGAPORE - The joint financial advisers of French shipping line CMA CGM, which is offering to take over Singapore's container shipping firm Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) for US$2.4 billion (S$3.39 billion), made a dealings disclosure on Monday (Dec 14).

On Dec 11, CMA CGM bought about 3.68 million NOL shares on the open market at S$1.22 per share. The shares purchased make up 0.14 per cent of NOL's issued share capital, they said.

The purchase price is at a 6 per cent discount to CMA CGM's offer to acquire all of NOL's issued and paid up shares at S$1.30 per share.

The total number of shares now owned, controlled or agreed to be acquired by CMA CGM is 10.8 million.

On Dec 7, NOL, one of the pioneering companies in Singapore history, announced it had received an offer from CMA CGM, valuing it at S$3.38 billion.

Temasek Holdings, which owns 67 per cent, agreed to sell its shares.

The acquisition will allow the privately owned CMA CGM, which plans to delist NOL, to "cement its position among the global leaders in the container shipping industry", said an NOL statement to the Singapore Exchange.