At the end of July, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) began considering a case involving the sale of a stake in the German port of Hamburg to the Swiss container company MSC.
This was reported by the CFTS portal, citing the publication Liga Business.
The committee concluded that this transaction could, under certain conditions, lead to the monopolization of the container cargo handling market in the port of Odesa, which could justify a ban on the acquisition.
"Consequently, the committee has identified grounds for an in-depth study of the state of competition and analysis of the impact of acquisitions on the Ukrainian commodity markets. Simultaneously with the start of the consideration of these acquisition cases, the committee started considering cases alleging concerted practices directly related to these acquisitions," the committee said.
In 2023, MSC announced an agreement to acquire a stake in Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA), which operates the Port of Hamburg. Upon completion of the transaction, MSC will own 49.9% of HHLA and the City of Hamburg, represented by HGV, 50.1%.
According to the information on the AMCU website, the committee will review the two acquisitions involved in this transaction: the acquisition of control of HHLA by SAS Shipping Agencies Services S.à r.l. (a subsidiary of MSC) and HGV; and the acquisition of control of Port of Hamburg Beteiligungsgesellschaft SE (a subsidiary of MSC) by SAS Shipping Agencies Services and HGV.
