France’s CMA CGM SA is in exclusive talks to buy Singapore’s Neptune Orient Lines Ltd (NOL), the shipping company and its Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Ltd., its largest shareholder, said.

The deal would bring together the world’s third-largest container company with Southeast Asia’s biggest container shipper. If materialises, it would be one of the biggest acquisitions in the shipping container industry in years.

NOL, whose ships operate under the APL brand, said that Temasek had granted CMA CGM exclusivity “with respect to a potential acquisition of NOL by way of pre-conditional voluntary general offer”.

Acquiring Neptune Orient would help consolidate CMA CGM’s position in the global container market along with Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Co.

APL container unit has a 2.7 per cent market share, while CMA CGM controls 8.9 per cent of the market, according to data from industry consultant Alphaliner . The combined company would be far closer than at present to Mediterranean Shipping Company’s 13.4 per cent of the world fleet.