One More! MSC, The World's Largest Container Shipping Company, Announces A Major Acquisition

In the last six months, following frequent moves to ports, logistics companies, and airlines, the Apontes family, holder of the world's largest liner company, MSC, has decided to acquire Hamburger Hafen und Logistik (HHLA), the jewel in the crown of Germany's ports, which is about to undergo a dramatic change.

On the 13th, MSC's wholly-owned subsidiary Port of Hamburg Investments issued a statement saying that it had made a cash offer to HHLA's shareholders at a price of €16.75 per share and that MSC and the City of Hamburg had also entered into a binding agreement. Upon completion of the acquisition, the wholly owned subsidiary of the City of Hamburg will hold 50.1% of the share capital of HHLA, and MSC will hold 49.9%.

Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), which is owned by the Apontes family, is the world's largest container carrier, and HHLA is Hamburg's largest port operator. MSC's offer will be subject to approval by the relevant authorities, and HHLA's executive committee said it would review and evaluate the offer. The publicly listed HHLA is now 69 percent owned by the City of Hamburg, with the rest of the shares free-floating. If MSC completes the acquisition, HHLA's shareholding will consist of 49.9 percent of MSC and 50.1 percent of the City of Hamburg.

According to analysts at Alphaliner, MSC's offer relates to the entirety of HHLA's business, including its rail logistics subsidiaries, the Hamburg Terminal, and all container terminal assets outside of Germany in Tallinn-Muga, Odessa, and Trieste. The bid was made by MSC, not its port unit, Terminal Investment Limited.

Alphaliner said, "The deal could mark a turning point for the Port of Hamburg, where throughput has been stagnant for more than a decade and federal support for the maritime and industrial sectors has been lukewarm in recent years."

Container throughput in Germany's No. 1 port city, the Port of Hamburg, fell 11.7 percent in the first half of 2023 to 3.8 million TEUs. It risks slipping out of the top 20 container ports this year.

Alphaliner understands that MSC has signed a deal agreeing to ship an extra 1 million TEUs a year through Hamburg's HHLA terminal. The Swiss-Italian group has also moved its German liner shipping headquarters from Bremen to Hamburg and its German cruise business center from Munich to Hamburg.