After billionaire Klaus-Michael Kühne, the main shareholder of the Eurokai Group, Thomas Eckelmann, is now considering a counteroffer for the port of Hamburg. The Hanseatic city, previously the major shareholder, wants the shipping company MSC to have a significant stake of almost 50 percent in the port company HHLA. “This deal would be a catastrophe for the port of Hamburg. That’s why I’m considering submitting a counteroffer to MSC to the Senate on behalf of the Eurokai Group. Under the same conditions,” Eckelmann told the Hamburger Abendblatt. Kühne had previously said that the deal was an affront to Hapag-Lloyd as the Port of Hamburg’s largest shipping company customer. He advised Hapag-Lloyd, in which he holds 30 percent through his Kühne Holding, to make a takeover offer for 49.9 percent of HHLA shares: “If Hapag-Lloyd would not do it, my Kühne Holding AG would consider doing so in the short term do.”
The world’s largest container shipping company MSC and the Senate announced on Wednesday that the Swiss company wanted to join the Hamburg port logistics company HHLA. The Geneva-based group and the Hanseatic city signed a binding preliminary agreement to establish a strategic partnership. The city currently holds around 69 percent of the listed Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA). In the future, this will be managed jointly in a joint venture, with the city holding 50.1 percent and MSC 49.9 percent of the shares.
The problem: A takeover by players other than MSC is considered very difficult. Because of the binding preliminary agreement, the city of Hamburg is unlikely to transfer its shares beyond 50.1 percent to anyone else. That leaves around 31 percent in free float, which MSC is already trying to get with an offer of 16.75 euros per share. Third-party providers could still prevent the MSC deal and maintain the status quo if they obtained at least ten percent of the shares.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has meanwhile emphasized the strategic importance of ports for Germany and called for more investment. The federal cabinet will hopefully decide on the national port strategy this year, said Scholz on Thursday in a speech at the National Maritime Conference in Bremen. The former mayor of Hamburg criticized that the German ports had been neglected by many decision-makers for a long time.
The Chancellor did not respond to the container shipping company MSC’s offer to take over the largest terminal operator in the Hanseatic city of Hamburg, which was announced on Wednesday.