DANISH shipping company AP Moller-Maersk group plans to spin off Maersk Drilling and list it in Copenhagen in 2019 to focus purely on the transport and logistics sector. Maersk sold Maersk Oil to French oil major Total last year for US$7.5 billion as part of a restructuring led by CEO Soren Skou. Following the de-merger of Maersk Drilling, in which the Maersk family's holding company will retain a significant stake, a "material part" of its remaining shares in Total will be distributed to shareholders. In March Maersk took a 3.7 per cent stake, or 97.5 million shares, in Total. It sold stock worth $1.2 billion in July, leaving it with 78.3 million Total shares, reported Reuters. A slower-than-expected increase in container shipping freight rates combined with soaring bunker fuel costs prompted Maersk to lower its full-year profit outlook this month. However, Mr Skou said that the development in freight rates had been positive and that the company had regained control of its costs in the second quarter after a rise linked to its acquisition of Hamburg Sud. But Maersk said that its second-quarter profitability had been hit by a 30 per cent spike in the price of bunker fuel for its vessels. By divesting its oil and gas business, Maersk can no longer use oil as a hedge against downturns in the container market, although it said it was looking at a recovery for the remainder of the year on the back of lower costs and higher freight rates. Maersk has not publicly put a price tag on the drilling division, but analysts have previously valued it at $4.8 billion. It reported a two per cent rise in second-quarter EBITDA to $159 million, while sales were up five per cent to $366 million. The spin-off of its offshore drilling operation would free up cash proceeds of $1.2 billion, Maersk said.