EU clears syndicate takeover of Hapag-Lloyd
The European Commission has cleared German holding companies Kuehne Holding AG and HGV Hamburger Gesellschaft together with German travel giant TUI AG to own container shipping company Hapag-Lloyd AG, Dow Jones reported.
Hapag-Lloyd was previously wholly owned by TUI, which in mid-October agreed to sell its majority share of the company to the syndicate of German investors for an enterprise value of US$5.7 billion.
The sale is due to be concluded in March, but since the market for container lines has deteriorated significantly from when the sale was first agreed, the consortium has tried to renegotiate a new price for its stake in the ocean liner.
Kuehne is the parent company of a group of companies that are active in the logistics business, with its main activities in sea freight forwarding, air freight forwarding and contract logistics, the commission said.
The commission's investigation into the deal showed that the overlaps of the parties' activities are limited.
Hapag-Lloyd was previously wholly owned by TUI, which in mid-October agreed to sell its majority share of the company to the syndicate of German investors for an enterprise value of US$5.7 billion.
The sale is due to be concluded in March, but since the market for container lines has deteriorated significantly from when the sale was first agreed, the consortium has tried to renegotiate a new price for its stake in the ocean liner.
Kuehne is the parent company of a group of companies that are active in the logistics business, with its main activities in sea freight forwarding, air freight forwarding and contract logistics, the commission said.
The commission's investigation into the deal showed that the overlaps of the parties' activities are limited.