GERMAN
shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd, has completed its merger with Kuwait's United Arab Shipping Co (UASC),
it has been announced.
The
combined fleets of Hapag-Lloyd and UASC will include 230 vessels with a shared
capacity of 1.6 million TEU with vessel sizes averaging 6,840
TEU.
As
a member of the "THE" Alliance vessel sharing agreement with Yang
Ming, NYK, MOL and "K" Line, Hapag-Lloyd has
joined a fleet of 172 vessels offering 118 services. UASC contributes 58 ships
offering 45 services.
Hapag-Lloyd
will continue as a publicly traded company registered in Germany, with its
headquarters in Hamburg, the carrier said.
"This
is an important strategic milestone and a big step forward for
Hapag-Lloyd," said CEO Rolf Habben Jansen.
"We
now not only have a very strong market position in Latin America and the
Atlantic, but also in the Middle East, where we will become one of the leading
carriers. Our priority now is a smooth and fast integration of UASC and
Hapag-Lloyd," he said.
Merger
papers have been signed in Hamburg in July 2016. Since then roughly a dozen
competition authorities across the world had to grant their approval. In
addition, changes in the corporate legal structure were made and the consent of
several banks was obtained.
Combining
services will start in eight weeks and will be completed by October according
to plan, once the new employees from UASC have been trained to use the
Hapag-Lloyd systems.
After
that UASC's present transport volume will be handled on Hapag-Lloyd's IT
platform. The combined entity will thereby carry an estimated 10 million TEU a
year.
The
combined fleet will be one of the youngest in the industry, with an average
ship age of only 7.2 years, said the Hapag-Lloyd statement.
Hapag-Lloyd
plans to save US$435 million as a result of the merger, a big part of which
should be saved in 2018, though a the larger full amount is expected in 2019.
Hapag-Lloyd
will establish a new regional headquarters for the Region Middle East. This
will add a fifth Region to the existing Regions North America, Latin America,
Asia and Europe.
Said
Mr Habben Jansen: "By merging with CP Ships in 2005 and with CSAV in 2014,
we have demonstrated that we are able to combine businesses and integrate them
quickly, efficiently and profitably. We are optimistic that we will complete
the integration by the end of this year."
The
two majority shareholders of UASC, Qatar Investment Authority, through its
subsidiary Qatar Holding LLC, and the Public Investment Fund of the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia (PIF), will become new key shareholders of Hapag-Lloyd.
The
other UASC shareholders are the Kuwait Investment Authority on behalf of the
state of Kuwait, the Iraqi Fund for External Development (IFED), the United
Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which will be reflected with a combined 3.6 per cent
of the shares of Hapag-Lloyd as free float shares.
The
ownership structure of Hapag-Lloyd will be CSAV (22.6%), HGV (14.8%), Kuhne
Maritime (14.6%), Qatar Holding (14.4%), PIF (10.1%) and TUI (8.9%).
Source
: HKSG.