As of: September 18, 2023 9:54 a.m
A competition has broken out over the port of Hamburg: Who should take over parts of the city’s subsidiary HHLA? Numbers, data and graphics on the background.
What is it about?
The container shipping company MSC wants to join the port operator Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA). The Geneva-based MSC Group and the Hanseatic city signed a binding preliminary agreement to establish a strategic partnership. Accordingly, the slight majority of the company should remain owned by Hamburg. MSC wants 49.9 percent of HHLA shares. The shipping company offers independent shareholders and funds 16.75 euros per share. The Swiss shipping company also wants to buy 19 percent of its HHLA shares from the Hamburg Senate. The Hanseatic city would retain 50.1 percent of the shares.
Who owns HHLA?
HHLA is a stock corporation. Around 70 percent of the shares are owned by the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. They are managed by HGV Hamburger Gesellschaft für Vermögens- und Beteiligungsmanagement mbH.
HHLA is led by Angela Titzrath. She has been the company’s CEO since 2017. With around one million euros per year, Titzrath leads the list of the highest-earning top managers of large urban companies in Hamburg. Titzrath’s board colleagues are in second to fourth place, each with more than 700,000 euros.
HHLA’s sales development has shown an upward trend in recent years – despite a slight slowdown during the corona pandemic. Last year, sales were around 1.6 billion euros. The group employed around 6,600 people in 2022, around 3,000 in the container business.
After the announcement of the partial sale to MSC, HHLA shares rose from around 10 to more than 17 euros. This means that HHLA is valued at around 836 million euros.
All Market data on HHLA can be found on the tagesschau.de stock exchange portal.
HHLA: The competition in Hamburg
In addition to HHLA, there are other companies in Hamburg that are active in container handling. HHLA operates the Altenwerder, Burchardkai and Tollerort container terminals. The Bremen company Eurogate operates the Eurogate terminal. Of the approximately 8.3 million standard containers that were handled in Hamburg in 2022, 1.9 million went to the Eurogate terminal.
Shipping companies also have investments in other terminals: Hapag-Lloyd has a stake in the Altenwerder terminal. And the Chinese shipping company Cosco’s entry into the Tollerort terminal with a minority stake in the Tollerort terminal made headlines in June.
Eurogate is owned half by Eurokai KGaA from Hamburg and the other half by the BLG Logistics Group from Bremen, which in turn is partly owned by the city of Bremen. The Eckelmann family from Hamburg is behind Eurokai. In addition to Thomas H. Eckelmann, Tom Eckelmann, the 6th generation, is also active in the container business.
A planned cooperation between HHLA and Eurogate failed last year. In addition to the terminal in Hamburg, Eurogate has others in Wilhelmshaven and Bremerhaven. After the failure of the merger, Hamburg’s Finance Senator Andreas Dressel (SPD) emphasized that he still found a network of terminals in Hamburg, Bremerhaven and Wilhelmshaven useful. This is the only way the German ports on the North Sea could survive in Europe and around the world.
Who are MSC, Hapag-Lloyd and Kühne?
MSC, based in Geneva, is the largest container shipping company in the world. According to the company’s own information, the MSC fleet currently has 760 ships on 300 routes. This means it reaches 550 ports in 155 countries. 180,000 people work in the MSC Group. There are currently 22 MSC Cruises cruise ships.
The company also includes the shipping companies Explora Journeys, GNV and the ferry company Società Navigazione Alta Velocità. According to Forbes, MSC founder Gianluigi Aponte’s fortune is $29.4 billion. He comes from an Italian seafaring family and was a captain himself. The Apontes also founded TiL (Terminal Investment Limited) and operate over 70 container terminals in around 30 countries with TiL.
What are shipping alliances?
Together with Maersk from Denmark, MSC forms the 2M shipping alliance, which has the highest share of capacity of the shipping alliances in the Atlantic shipping area. An oversupply and stagnating freight and charter rates in recent years have led to a consolidation of the shipping industry and the formation of alliances that can save costs.
The Asian business, which is important for Europe, is divided into three almost equally sized parts across the alliances.
The largest German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd generated sales of around 34.5 billion euros in 2022 – almost tripling since 2020.
The planned partial sale of HHLA to its competitor MSC would directly affect Hapag-LLoyd. The spicy thing: The city of Hamburg has had a stake of around 14 percent in Hapag-LLody since 2008 through HGV (Hamburger Gesellschaft für Vermögens- und Beteiligungsmanagement), Hamburg’s group holding company – and has repeatedly benefited from hefty dividend payouts.
Hapag-Lloyd’s major shareholder Klaus-Michael Kühne has announced that he will make a counteroffer for HHLA. In addition to its share in Hapag-Lloyd, Kühne also owns the logistics group Kühne + Nagel and 15 percent of the Lufthansa Group. And Hapag-Lloyd itself is threatening to withdraw cargo.
What is the situation in the port of Hamburg?
The Port of Hamburg lives from the container business: the handling of metal boxes accounts for around 70 percent of the total throughput. In 2022, around 8.3 million standard containers were reloaded in Hamburg – a decrease of 0.4 million.
On the one hand, this is a sign that the economy in Germany has not yet picked up speed again after Corona. But it also shows that Hamburg has lost out in recent years compared to other important continental European North Sea ports, such as Rotterdam and Antwerp.
Hamburg plays only a minor role in the concert of the world’s largest ports.
Further information
