Israeli liner operator Zim is again looking at a stock exchange listing.

It is seeking to list on an overseas exchange early next year, according to Israeli business media reports.

Top of the list are London and New York, the news service Globes said.

The company has hired investment banks to arrange the listing by 2021 or even sooner, according to another news service, Calcalist.

A Zim spokesperson declined to comment on the reports.

Analysts believe the Haifa-based company is trying to take advantage of strong financial results as it rides the recovery in liner markets.

Zim reported its best quarterly results since 2010 with a big jump in second-quarter profits to $25.3m.

But Alphaliner noted that its financial record is "inconsistent".

Zim has had just one other profitable quarter in the past three-and-a-half years. That was in the third quarter of 2017, when it reported a profit of more than $5m.

The company operates 41 container vessels and is the 11th-largest liner operator, according to Alphaliner.

Its operated fleet fell to a decade low of 270,000 teu in March before rising above 300,000 teu, accounting for around 1% of the global market.

Nearly all of the vessels are chartered.

The company has a workforce of about 4,200 and a turnover of $3.3bn in 2019.

Zim has sought a listing on an international stock exchange on least two previous occasions.

The first was in 2007, when it was contemplating listing in Hong Kong. That attempt was thwarted by the financial crisis.

The company was again considering an initial public offering in 2015 after a huge debt-for-equity restructuring.

But that effort is believed to have been thwarted by poor earnings, and it was followed by a change of leadership when current chief executive Eli Glickman took over the helm in 2017.

Zim is 32%-owned by Idan Ofer's Kenon Holdings.

The remaining 68% is owned by a group of banks, bondholders and shipowners that took over the shares in a debt-to-equity restructuring plan in 2014.