The Korean Free Trade Commission (KFTC) announced that after examination, it decided to approve Maersk Line’s acquisition of Hamburg Sud, under restrictive conditions.
In December 2016, the Danish containership giant Maersk reached an agreement with Oetker Group, mother company of the German container shipping line ‘Hamburg Süd’ and the sale and purchase deal was approved by both parties’ boards in April for an estimated cost of EUR 3.7 billion on a cash and debt-free basis.
Following this, KFTC approved Maersk’s acquisition of Hamburg Sud, under the restrictive condition to withdraw Hamburg Süd’s ships from the vessel-sharing agreement, on the Far East-central America/Carribean Trade Route.
Earlier in November, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce approved Maersk Line’s acquisition of Hamburg Sud, under restrictive conditions, as well.
The Chinese Ministry’s conditions are the following:
- Hamburg South America will no longer participate in ASPA 1, 2 & 3 ship sharing agreement joined by Far East – South America West Coast route after expiration;
- Hamburg South America exited the Asia 2 ship sharing agreement on the Far East – South American east coast route ;
- Maersk Line and Hamburg-South America can not re-enter into a vessel sharing agreement or join a shipping alliance with the major competitors within 5 years after the delivery of this transaction between the Far East – South America East Coast Route and Far East – South America West Coast Route ;
- Maersk Line cuts the Far East – capacity refrigerated container transport routes on the west coast of South America, so that capacity market share fell to 34- 39% , and after this closing of the transaction 3 years to the Far East – South America West Coast routes refrigerated container transport Of the market share of capacity remained at 34-39% .
- Oversee the implementation of restrictive conditions apply in addition to this announcement, the Maersk in 2017 Nian 11 Yue 2 additional restrictive conditions submitted to the Japanese Ministry of Commerce proposals legally binding on the Ma Shiji shipping.
Recently, the South African Competition Tribunal approved the merger, while it has also been approved by respective authorities in the US, Australia, EU, Mexico, Turkey, Japan, Brazil and Ecuador.
Upon the acquisition, Maersk Line and Hamburg Süd will own 743 container vessels, with a total container capacity of around 3.9 million TEU (3.3 million TEU) and an 18.7% (16.0%) global capacity share.
