Swiss-owned container line Mediterranean Shipping Company is forging ahead with its 49.9% ownership deal of the Port of Hamburg after publishing a share-buy offer of 16.75 euros per share, with 4.7% of the port’s shares already purchased.
Despite recent resistance by democratic socialists under banners of Die Linke party (The Left), MSC’s ambitions to increase the struggling port’s box capacity by up to one million TEU’s has received the green light from Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, (BaFin).
It now seems a mere formality for shareholders to approve MSC’s ‘take over’ bid of Hamburger Hafen und Logistik (HHLA), the logistics entity responsible for container operations at the port.
If shareholders follow suit – after BaFin’s go-ahead it seems a fait accompli – HHLA will be managed as a joint venture (JV) with Hamburg city itself holding 50.1% of the shares and MSC the remaining 49.9.
News of MSC moving into a controlling position of Hamburg bodes well for a port that has recently slipped from a commanding position down Europe’s capacity rankings.
In the first half of 2023, Hamburg’s container throughput fell 11.7% to 3.5 million TEU after last year’s figures of 8.3 million TEU per annum.
Speaking in September at the JV’s announcement, MSC chief executive Søren Toft said the line intends to push capacity through Hamburg by a million TEU over the next eight years.
At the time it was also announced that MSC plans to build new headquarters at the Hafencity port precinct, with new home-port plans that will expectedly create 700 additional jobs on the cruise side of the line’s operations.
