Chinese state-owned giant COSCO Shipping informed that its acquisition of the Hong Kong-based Orient Overseas International Limited (OOIL) has passed a US anti-trust review.
The consent follows approval of the deal by the company shareholders at a general meeting, earlier this month.
The offer was made in July, when COSCO and Shanghai International Port (Group) Co., Ltd (SIPG) made a pre-conditional voluntary general offer to all shareholders of OOIL, to acquire all issued OOIL shares at an offer price of HK$78.67 in cash. Upon completion, COSCO would hold 90.1%, while SIPG would hold 9.9% of OOIL.
EU and China are yet to approve the takeover.
Based on existing fleet and orderbooks, the combined COSCO-OOCL entity would become the world’s third largest container carrier, operating a containership fleet of over 400 vessels and overtaking its partner in the Ocean Alliance, CMA CGM, according to BIMCO.