Currently the city of Hamburg holds a 69.25% stake in the terminal operator. Hamburg’s gain will be Bremerhaven’s loss according to container shipping experts at the Container Xchange conference currently taking place in Hamburg.
Chief analyst at Xenata, Peter Sand said: “MSC will surely have to commit further volumes as part of the agreement, but the city will benefit from the injection of cash.”
Sand said this agreement fits perfectly with MSC’s strategy of operating from port to port and with increased efficiency.
MSC has agreed to increase its volume throughput at Hamburg to 1 million teu by 2031 and will move its German headquarters to the city.
In a statement MSC added: “The aim of the partnership is to establish a strong and well-funded basis for the further development of HHLA and the entire Port of Hamburg, making it a central hub for MSC’s globally connected network of container services and logistics chains.”
The deal also gives MSC access to more terminals across Europe, including Hamburg, Odessa, in Ukraine, Tallinn and Trieste, with rail-company METRANS and what it said are “well-connected intermodal hubs in Central and Eastern Europe”.
It is perhaps these connections to the growth areas of the Baltic and eastern Europe that persuaded MSC to pay a premium on the share price.
At close of trading on 12 September HHLA shares were valued at €11.54 giving a market value of €840m, MSC has agreed to pay a premium for its share in the company paying €16.75 per share.
MSC CEO Soren Toft also announced that the number of jobs at the Hamburg facility would double to 700 as a result of this agreement.
However, the mood in Hamburg over the deal was mixed. One conference attendee, who wanted to remain anonymous argued that MSC will not have priority handling at Hamburg written into its contract, and if an OOCL ship were made to wait because an MSC ship was required to be worked on first, then HHLA will start to lose customers.
It is he said a balancing act that other carriers will watch closely.
Moreover, this deal gives MSC a major share in the company that operates Container Terminal Tollerort. Chinese carrier Cosco struggled to acquire a stake in CTT for some years, finally getting the go-ahead in June this year to secure a 24.99% share in a single terminal.
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