The fight for the Hamburg port operator HHLA is entering a new phase. The Swiss shipping company MSC now wants to join HHLA. This would mean that MSC would thwart the plans of financial investor Kühne.
The power struggle over a stake in or takeover of HHLA appears to have been decided in favor of the Swiss shipping company MSC. According to the Hamburg port operator, MSC has made an offer to take over almost half of HHLA’s shares.
MSC’s voluntary takeover offer provides for the payment of 16.75 euros in cash per class A share, according to HHLA. The Hanseatic City of Hamburg currently holds around 69 percent of the listed A shares, ten percent of the shares are held by private investors and 21 percent by institutional investors. HHLA shares rose by around 44 percent to 16.72 in the morning, almost to the level of the takeover offer.
The city of Hamburg remains at the helm at HHLA
MSC, based in Geneva, says it has reached a binding agreement with the Hanseatic City of Hamburg, the largest shareholder, that regulates the terms of the takeover offer.
Even after the Swiss take over, Hamburg will remain HHLA’s largest shareholder with 50.1 percent. If MSC holds 100 percent of the A shares after completion of the takeover offer and the contribution, the shipping company would then hold 49.9 percent of the share capital.
Kühne wanted to merge with Hapag Lloyd
MSC’s entry into HHLA thwarts the plans of the Hamburg billionaire and major shareholder of Hapag Lloyd, Klaus-Michael Kühne. The logistics entrepreneur wanted to take over the Hamburg port authority HHLA himself and merge it with the container shipping company Hapag-Lloyd.
Just yesterday, Kühne told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”: “If an acquisition of HHLA is possible, it would be possible to include Hapag-Lloyd or to leave the stake entirely to Hapag-Lloyd.” According to the report, Kühne would be prepared to spend around half a billion euros for the majority shareholding in HHLA and to invest in modernizing the facilities.
Kühne strategy can no longer be implemented
However, the initiative was not coordinated with Hapag Lloyd, in which Kühne has a 30 percent stake, nor with the city of Hamburg. “A lot depends on Hamburg politics, which is currently very left-leaning. But as soon as fresh forces from the bourgeois camp gain weight, the tide could change,” Kühne told the newspaper.
Kühne then wanted to offer terminal investments to competitors such as MSC or the French CMA CGM “in order to bind them to Hamburg and at the same time give them a say.” With MSC joining HHLA, this strategy would no longer be feasible.
Chinese Cosco on board at HHLA terminal
The federal government approved a takeover of a 25 percent stake in a container terminal belonging to the Hamburg port operator HHLA by the Chinese state shipping company Cosco in May. The Chinese company had originally sought a 35 percent stake, but the government had already rejected this in October.