Maersk, the Danish shipping company, said Monday that it was no longer interested in purchasing DB Schenker because integrating this logistics firm would present too many challenges.

Maersk had previously stated that it would consider buying the logistics division of Deutsche Bahn, the German state railway operator.

"Our investigation confirmed DB Schenker is an interesting company... The in-depth analysis also revealed areas that needed to be addressed from an integration perspective, according to Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc.

We concluded that acquiring DB Schenker was not the best thing for our company at this time.

In May, sources familiar with the situation said that Deutsche Bahn chose Maersk in conjunction with DSV, Bahri, and CVC, in consortium with ADIA, and GIC, to enter the final stage of a sales process.

Sources said that one or more bids from the four participants in an earlier round were greater than 15 billion Euros ($16.13billion). One source added that other bids ranged between 13 billion and fourteen billion euros.

Maersk's shares rose 6% and Danish freight forwarder DSV shares rose 5% shortly after the announcement. Reporting by Stine Jacobsen and editing by Anna Ringstrom, Alexander Smith.