Danish shipping and oil group A P Moller-Maersk sold 500 million euros ($698.5 million) of new seven-year bonds in an oversubscribed offering that was part of a policy to diversify its funding.

The 2017 bond, only Maersk's third corporate bond issue - attracted orders of six billion euros, Danske Bank said.

It was priced with a coupon of 4.375 per cent and reoffer of 99.646, giving a yield of 4.435 per cent.

The group has no immediate plans to obtain a rating as a debt issuer, Maersk's head of finance Jan Kjaervik said.

It would seek to build up a portfolio of bonds with various maturities, and it would make sense to have maturities of three, five and seven years, Kjaervik added.

A P Moller-Maersk, which owns the world's biggest container shipping company Maersk Line, entered the corporate bond market for the first time last year with a 750 million euro issue, followed by a 4bn Norwegian crown ($689.2 million) issue.