The South African Competition Tribunal has approved Danish Maersk Line’s acquisition of German Hamburg Sud (HSDG).
‘The transaction will have an impact on the market for the provision of deep-sea container liner shipping services,’ noted the Tribunal.
The transaction is subject to a condition whereby the merging parties must terminate any cooperation agreements HSDG has in the South Africa/East Coast South America trade route. The parties have not opposed the condition.
The merger has been approved by respective authorities in the US, Australia, EU, Mexico, Turkey, Japan, Brazil and Ecuador.
On 1 December 2016, Maersk Line announced its intention to acquire Hamburg Süd, and on 14 March 2017, Maersk Line announced the signing of a sale and purchase agreement with the Oetker Group, owner of Hamburg Süd.
With 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.
The Maersk Group is an integrated transport and logistics company, involved in the deep-sea container shipping market and is the world’s largest container shipping company. The Maersk Group also provides tramp services for the transportation of refined oil products.
Although Maersk Line does not provide tramp services to South Africa, it has provided tramp services to South African customers. The Maersk Group is however active in the provision of container liner shipping and freight forwarding services across various South African trade routes.
HSDG is the seventh largest container shipping line in the world. HSDG is also active in the provision of tramp services. HSDG has no subsidiaries in South Africa and is only represented through branch and third agency offices.
