[270317.EN.BIZ] Lenders Said to Seek Better Financing in Hapag-Lloyd-UASC Merger Deal

DELAYING in the Hapag-Lloyd takeover of the United Arab Shipping Company (USSC) until May 31 may yet derail the deal, reports London's Loadstar.

"If the conditions are not satisfied or waived by the long-stop date, the agreement terminates automatically," said a lawyer source familiar with the deal.

Also the German shipping giant will table its 2016 financial results today, Friday, March 24, and will hold an investors' conference call. The carrier posted a net loss of US$158 million for the first half of last year, but also made a $9 million third quarter profit.

The delay is because UASC lenders are "seeking additional security" from the company's sovereign backers, namely Qatar Holding, which post-merger will hold 14.3 per cent of Hapag-Lloyd while the Public Investment Fund Saudi Arabia will own 10.1 per cent.

Hapag-Lloyd said the transaction was "not at risk", but admitted to a banking snag.

Hapag-Lloyd said the hold up would not impact the April 1 launch of THE Alliance, but it has forced the two carriers to sign vessel-sharing agreements as an interim measure.

According to Alphaliner, UASC will take an initial slot allocation of 5,990 TEU a week from Hapag-Lloyd across all of its US services covered by the 19 operated within THE Alliance network, but the analyst was unable to ascertain the details of the slot swap allocations made on the Asia-Europe and Asia-Middle East trades.

Source : HKSG.