[0505017.EN.SEA] Management Reshuffle After Merger of Maersk and Hamburg Sud

DANISH shipping giant Maersk Line and the Oetker Group plan to shake up the management team of Hamburg Sud after Maersk acquires the German liner company, according to a joint statement from the companies.

Maersk said it expects the deal to close in the fourth quarter of 2017, and that until then, the two companies will continue to conduct business as usual.

The changes include Ottmar Gast retiring as chairman of Hamburg Sud's executive board to become the chairman of its supervisory board.

Chief operating officer of Maersk Line A/S,Soren Toft, will become member of the supervisory board of Hamburg Sud, while Arnt Vespermann, currently a member of Hamburg Sud's executive board, will become the new chairman of the executive board of Hamburg Sud. He will also be in charge of compliance, corporate communication and of Hamburg Sud's Columbus Ship Management unit. He will be what the companies call a "coach" for two of Hamburg-Sud's five regions - North America as well as the Caribbean and Latin America West Coast.

Frank Smet will continue as member of the executive board of Hamburg Sud with responsibilities for sales and marketing, customer order management and all Hamburg Sud parts of operations, including network and logistics. He will be the coach for the Asia Pacific and South America East Coast regions.

Jakob Wegge-Larsen, currently chief financial officer of Maersk Line operations, will join the executive board of Hamburg Sud to assume the responsibility of finance and accounting, controlling and information technology and services. He will be the coach for the Europe region.

While "coach" is not commonly used as a title in US businesses, Eva Graumann, the global head of corporate communications at Hamburg Sud, explained the role is part of what the company calls its "matrix" organisational structure, American Shipper reported.

"Members of the executive board in Hamburg are in charge of certain functional departments in the head office, such as sales, customer service, logistics, operations, finance and accounting, human resources, etc," she said. "Those departments oversee and give guidance to the respective functions in the five regions. The regions are in charge of the day-to-day business with a high degree of commercial and operational empowerment and independence."

Two or three senior managers in each region, "report to and are coached by one of the members of the executive board when it comes to organisational or other matters that are not directly related to the day-to-day business," added Ms Graumann. "While the role of the coaches was established long time ago and not only recently in the advent of the take-over by Maersk, the coaches will certainly play a vital role in the integration process."

Maersk said it "intends to maintain the business model of Hamburg Sud as well as the commercial structure in the regions" following completion of the deal.

"Hence, the five customer facing regions and the areas will remain unchanged after closing and the respective management is asked to continue in their current capacity."

The companies noted the acquisition is still subject to regulatory approval and said until the closing, Hamburg Sud will continue to operate independently from Maersk Line as required by competition laws.

Meanwhile, Lloyd's List of London reported that Hamburg Sud's director Peter Frederiksen is to leave the German line at the end of June to return to his native Denmark and pursue other business interests.

Source : HKSG.