And the next town! MSC, the world's largest container ship company, has announced a major acquisition

The Port of Hamburg Investment Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of MSC, said in a statement that it had made a cash offer to HHLA's shareholders for 16.75 euros per share, and that Mediterranean Shipping Company and the City of Hamburg had also entered into a binding agreement. 

Upon completion of the acquisition, the wholly-owned subsidiary of the City of Hamburg will hold 50.1% of HHLA's share capital and MSC will hold 49.9%.

The Apontes family controls Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), the world's largest container shipping company, and HHLA is Hamburg's largest port operator. MSC's offer will require approval from the relevant authorities and the HHLA Executive Committee said it would review and evaluate the offer. The publicly listed HHLA is now 69% owned by the city of Hamburg, with the remaining shares floating freely. If MSC completes the acquisition, HHLA's equity will consist of 49.9% of MSC's equity and 50.1% of the Municipality of Hamburg.

According to Alphaliner analysts, MSC's offer covers the entire business of HHLA, including its rail logistics subsidiary, the Hamburg Terminal and all container terminal assets outside Germany in Tallin-Muga, Odessa and Trieste. The bid was made by MSC, not Terminal Investment Limited, its port unit.

"This transaction could mark a turning point for the Port of Hamburg, where throughput has been stagnant for more than a decade and where federal government support for the maritime and industrial sectors has been tepid in recent years," Alphaliner said.

The Port of Hamburg, Germany's largest port city, saw its container throughput fall 11.7% to 3.8 million TEU in the first half of 2023. There is a risk of slipping out of the top 20 container ports this year.

Alphaliner understands that MSC has signed an agreement to ship an additional 1 million TEUs per year through the HHLA terminal in Hamburg. The Swiss-Italian group also moved its German liner shipping headquarters from Bremen to Hamburg and the centre of its German cruise operations from Munich to Hamburg.

Earlier this year, Cosco acquired a 24.9 per cent stake in Container Terminal Terminals (CTT), a unit of HHLA. Aware of the potential for overseas interests to take over the port, Klaus-Michael Kuhne, the tycoon who controls Kuehne+Nagel and owns 30% of the German shipping company Habag-Lloyd, has been expressing his own interest in taking control of HHLA. "If an acquisition of HHLA is feasible, then it would be possible to include Hapag-Lloyd or leave the stake entirely with Hapag-Lloyd." Kuhne told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung earlier this week.

In a separate interview with Hamburg Abendblatt, Kuhne said he was "concerned" about HHLA and described the company as "poorly run." The tycoon revealed that he had twice offered to buy the 69 per cent stake owned by the city of Hamburg.

MSC's bid is expected to feature prominently at this year's National Maritime conference, organised by the Federal Ministry of Economics, which will take place in Bremen on Thursday and Friday.

MSC, a Mediterranean shipping company, has recently been on a buying spree. In August this year, MSC issued an official announcement announcing the formal acquisition of a majority stake in AlisCargo Airlines, an Italian airline, and both parties indicated that MSC would then fully acquire the company's shares.

In June, MSC was in talks to acquire Wilson Sons, Brazil's largest port and shipping logistics company! MSC plans to buy about 57 percent of Wilson Sons from its parent company for about 5 billion reais ($1.02 billion). This is MSC's return to the South American market after last year's acquisition of Log-In Logistica, a well-known South American container shipping company ranked 51st in the world by capacity.

In April, MSC officially announced the acquisition of 100 percent of Paris-based Bollore Group's African logistics business for 5.7 billion euros ($6.4 billion). MSC's acquisition of Bollore Africa Logistics includes all of Bollore Group's transport and logistics businesses in Africa, including shipping, logistics and terminal operations, as well as terminal operations in India, Haiti and Timor-Leste.