The Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) has received approval from the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) to acquire a stake in the Hamburg port logistics company HHLA.

The AMCU announced this in a statement in response to an information request from the CFTS portal.

According to AMCU Chairman Pavlo Kyrylenko, the committee made two decisions regarding this acquisition on 14 November 2024.

"The committee's decision No. 446-r of 14 November 2014 granted permission to SAS Shipping Agencies Services S.à.r.l. (Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg) to acquire control over Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (Hamburg, Germany) together with HGV Hamburger Gesellschaft für Vermögens- und Beteiligungsmanagement mbH (Hamburg, Germany)," the AMCU said in the statement.

"The committee's decision No. 447-r granted permission to HGV Hamburger Gesellschaft für Vermögens- und Beteiligungsmanagement mbH (Hamburg, Germany) to acquire control over Port of Hamburg Beteiligungsgesellschaft SE (Hamburg, Germany) together with SAS Shipping Agencies Services S.à.r.l. (Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg)," the AMCU added.

"The content of the decisions will be published on the official website of the committee, where they will be published within 10 working days from the date of their adoption," the AMCU said.

In the summer, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine launched an investigation into the impact of this deal on competition in Ukrainian seaports, where HHLA operates its own container terminal. HHLA has been operating Container Terminal Odesa (CTO) since 2001. CTO handled the largest volume of containers among Ukrainian container terminals before the outbreak of the full-scale war, commanding a 35-40% market share.

After the European Commission approved MSC's acquisition of HHLA's stake earlier this fall, MSC's management said Ukraine's approval was necessary for the deal to go through. As a result, MSC has finally become a major shareholder in the port operator, acquiring a 49.9% stake (the City of Hamburg retains the remaining 50.1%). The terminal is the latest acquisition by MSC, which already owns 70 terminals and 760 container ships. HHLA currently operates three of the four container terminals at the Port of Hamburg, the third-largest container port in Europe.