Maersk Group CEO Nils Smedegaard Andersen maintained in a teleconference immediately following the announcement of the group's first quarter interim report Wednesday morning that the specific circumstances behind the dramatic layoffs of three executives at APM Terminals previously this year will not be elaborated further.

"I'm sorry that I cannot answer questions about personnel at APM Terminals, but we have clear internal guidelines at the group on how to handle this, and we must react to violations when we deem them severe enough. We have no further comments," said Nils Smedegaard Andersen.