Moller-Maersk shares slide as Q3 profits sink 43 percent

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - Shares in Danish conglomerate A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S tanked after the company reported a 43 percent slide in third-quarter profits in the wake of low container freight rates and oil prices.

The company said its profit during the July to September period fell to $429 million from $755 million in the same period in 2015. The decline was accompanied by a 9.1 percent fall in revenues to $9.2 billion.

CEO Soren Skou conceded that profit this year would likely be "significantly below" last year's.

Shares in the company dropped 8 percent in Copenhagen trading to 9,280 kroner.

In September, the group split its massive container shipping operations and energy business into separate companies, in a shake-up following years of declining oil prices and freight rates.

Results were posted in U.S. dollars.