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Great Danes grow even bigger with Hamburg Süd buy

[ December 1, 2016   //   ]

Maersk Line is to buy one of the last independent European shipping lines and the world’s seventh-largest operator, Hamburg Süd, from its owners, German-based Oetker, subject to final agreement and regulatory approvals.

The move will create a container shipping giant, adding Hamburg Süd’s 625,000teu, 130-ship capacity to Maersk Line, already the world’s biggest operator, and creating an operator with a capacity of around 3.8 million teu and 741 ships. The new Maersk Line will have an 18.6% global capacity share compared with 15.7% currently.

The purchase includes Hamburg Süd’s own recent South American acquisitions, CCNI in Chile and Aliança in Brazil.

Hamburg Süd and Aliança will remain as separate brands and continue to serve customers through their local offices, said Maersk Line.

The takeover of Hamburg Süd has few direct implications for the global container alliances, as the German carrier was one of a very small number of operators not to be part of any major grouping. However, the Maersk’s addition muscle will also boost the 2M partnership, which it operates with MSC. That grouping currently has a fleet of 5.7m teu and a global market share estimated at around 28%, so the new addition will push the fleet well above the 6m teu mark and push market share up to around 31%.

As its name implies, Hamburg Süd is strong in the North–South trades and these are seen as a useful addition to comprehensive aersk Line’s network.

Oetker Group has owned Hamburg Süd for the past 80 years and the sale “was not an easy decision” said chairman of the family-owned company, Dr August Oetker.

However, like all shipping lines Hamburg Süd’s profitability has come under immense pressure and the container line was also increasingly the odd man out in a portfolio that includes food, beer, banking and luxury hotels.

The acquisition is subject to due diligence priocesses and regulatory approval in countries including China, Korea, Australia, Brazil, the US and the EU, a process which Maersk Line expects to last until the end of 2017.

 

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