Maersk Line plans to buy Hamburg Süd and Alianca

A.P. Moller-Maersk, the world’s largest container shipping line, has agreed to buy Hamburg Süd, the world’s seventh largest container shipping line, which currently operates 130 container vessels. Hamburg Süd is currently owned by the Oetker Group, which is a family owned company involved in many industries. Hamburg Süd has 5,960 employees spanning in more than 250 global offices.  Included in Maersk’s acquisition is Aliança, Oetker Group’s Brazilian container shipping line, which was originally acquired by the Oetker Group in 1998. Hamburg Süd and Aliança will continue to operate as separate brands.

“A.P. Moller-Maersk said it expected to give more details following approval of the purchase agreement which is expected early in the second quarter of 2017.” [Source]

Joint operations are not expected to begin before the fourth quarter of 2017.

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According to American Shipper,

“Maersk Line said the acquisition of Hamburg Süd would boost its share of the world container fleet from 15.7 percent to 18.6 percent, and increase its capacity from 3.14 million TEUs to 3.76 million TEUs.”

The Wall Street Journal reports that Maersk Line has agreed to pay roughly $4 billion for the acquisition.

Maersk Line will now have developed a combined network that provides exciting opportunities to develop new competitive products and exploit operational synergies. At the same time, existing Maersk customers will benefit from an increase in weekly sailings and more direct port-to-port pairs.

Some shippers told JOC.com they “expect significant rate increases from the acquisition from overcapacity issues. Unless something changes dramatically, container lines risk a repeat of the brutal 2015-16 contracting season, deepening industry losses set to approach $10 billion this year alone,” according to Bill Mongelluzzo and Mark Szakonyi.

Maersk is part of the 2M Alliance which also includes MSC, the second largest container shipping line in the world.

Check out cool facts and figures on Maersk Line here.

Sources:
CNN.com
American Shipper
Wall Street Journal
Maersk Line
Alianca