CMA CGM has now bought more than 2% of the shares in takeover target Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) for less than its offer price.

Monday saw CMA CGM pick-up a further 0.17% stake in NOL on the open market for prices of SGD1.235 and SGD1.24 per share. As with other open market purchases since the French line announced its takeover plans in December 2015 the latest buys were at a level below the SGD1.30 per it has offered for the Singapore company.

CMA CGM now has a 2.1% stake in NOL.

The takeover is not expected to be completed till the second half of 2016 so some shareholders are opting to sell at below the offer price rather than hang on the shares for six months or longer.