The Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) is awaiting approval from Ukrainian authorities to complete its acquisition of a stake in Hamburg-based port logistics company HHLA.
MSC’s CEO Soren Toft announced this in an interview with the German public broadcaster NDR, the CFTS portal reports.
"The Ukrainian authorities still have to approve the acquisition - HHLA operates a container terminal in Odesa. We hope to get the green light from there in two, three, or four weeks. Then we will become a new partner of HHLA," said the head of the world's largest shipping company.
In the summer, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) conducted an "in-depth study of the state of competition and an analysis of the impact of the concentration on Ukrainian commodity markets." The AMCU has begun considering the case "on concerted actions directly related to the implementation of these concentrations" and has undertaken to examine two specific concentrations under this agreement. The first is the acquisition of control of HHLA by SAS Shipping Agencies Services S.à r.l (a subsidiary of MSC) and HGV. The second is the acquisition of control of Port of Hamburg Beteiligungsgesellschaft SE (a subsidiary of MSC) by SAS Shipping Agencies Services and HGV.
Container Terminal Odesa (CTO), owned by HHLA, handled the largest volume of containers among Ukrainian container terminals before the full-scale war, commanding a market share of 35-40%. The terminal, with a capacity of 850,000 TEU, increased its container turnover by 5.1% to 390,808 TEU in 2021, compared with 2020 (the turnover of Ukrainian seaports in that year was 1.022 million TEU). Therefore, the AMCU was concerned that a company that operates a large fleet and runs container shipping lines could also become the owner of a major terminal in Odesa.
The Hamburg City Parliament and the European Commission have already approved the agreement with MSC. In the future, the City of Hamburg will own 50.1% of the shares in HHLA and MSC, which is registered in Switzerland, 49.9%.
