Jansen Habben (Hapag-Lloyd): the immediate access to the ships of the UASC is one of the main objectives of the fusion



The managing director of the Hapag-Lloyd, Rolf Habben Jansen, us has put all in order to convince the shareholders of the company, reunited today in assembly to the Hotel Grand Elysée di Amburgo, of the goodness of the project of fusion with the United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) of Dubay. The development of the assembly, fixed initially in order 1°th june, was sent back today waiting for the subscription of the Business Combination Agreement (BCA) for the fusion, to subject to the appraisal of the shareholders, than Hapag-Lloyd and UASC have signed at the end last month ( on 18 July 2016).

Habben Jansen has begun its participation illustrating to the shareholders the current state of the German company and the market in which work, remembering that Hapag-Lloyd, already quoted in Stock exchange from 1970 to 2002, last November is returned on the securities markets, with presence in the lists of Xetra, Frankfurt and Amburgo, to conclusion of an initial public offer that has yielded a collection of about 265 million euros. 2015, although have been a very challenging year characterized from numerous conflicts and breeding grounds of crisis, from the increase found it hard in China and Latin America and from the elevated volatility of the securities markets, factors that have influenced also the activities of Hapag-Lloyd and the entire field of the shipping that it has been confronted with an increase of the competitive pressure and with lasting of the trend of the reduction of the hires, Hapag-Lloyd, for the first time from 2010 - it has emphasized - have archived item the year with an economic result clearly of positive sign pairs to about 114 million euros. Moreover Habben Jansen has remembered that exercise 2015 is characterized by integration of the activities of marine transport of the containers of Chilean CSAV, acquired the year precedence ( on 2 December 2014) "Also regarding our competitors - the managing director of Hapag-Lloyd has declared - it has been a success year".

Habben Jansen has specified that however, if in 2015 a clearly positive result is achieved, the continuous context of market to being difficult. Admitting that the fusion with UASC would carry to record not recurrent burdens and that, with the performance of the concentration, initially the indebtedness financial would grow ( on 24 August 2016), the CEO of Hapag-Lloyd has proposed the shareholders not to distribute the dividends and to carry the profits to new in the picture of a strengthening of the net worth. The payment of a dividend - it has found - would be in contrast with the objective to strengthen the budget.

Habben Jansen has confirmed that vice versa the obtained economic results from the German company in the first semester of the 2016 have been "disappointing" ( on 10 August 2016). In the first half of the 2016 - it has emphasized - nobody of the main international companies of navigation it has been able to record positive numbers. The managing director of Hapag-Lloyd has announced that although the success of the programs of cost reduction and of the synergies deriving from the fusion with CSAV, the company will not be able to reach the objectives initially previewed and that for entire 2016, against an light increase of the transported containerized volumes from the fleet, a meaningfully inferior EBITDA and EBIT regarding last year are attended "".

As in the past weeks, Habben Jansen has restated that now for Hapag-Lloyd the thing more important is "to put into effect the fusion with UASC as soon as possible". After your approval and the necessary normative approvals - it has said addressing the shareholders - it will have to start integration immediately".

The CEO of the company of Amburgo has observed that the acquisition of the business of the container of the CSAV has revealed a corrected strategic decision. With the fusion - it has asserted - our competitiveness is improved in meaningful way returning one us of the main lines of total navigation of the container. Moreover - he has added - market leader has returned us on the routes north-south in addition to ours already hard position in the East-West traffic". "In 2015 - it has evidenced Habben Jansen - already the first important are realized synergies and in 2017 integration it will offer to synergies anniversaries pairs about 400 million dollars, about 100 million dollars in more than we had initially previewed".

For these and other reasons Habben Jansen consider that "the imminent fusion with UASC constitutes another important strategic goal for Hapag-Lloyd". "After the success of integration of the CSAV - it has reaffirmed - the fusion with UASC represents the next crucial step".

Besides the elements that have induced Hapag-Lloyd to put into effect the concentration with South American CSAV, if of the Middle Eastern UASC there is in fact another factor that Habben Jansen considers determining in the decision to carry to term the fusion: the characteristics of the fleet of portacontainer of the company of Dubay.

The CEO of the German company has remembered that "UASC manages a fleet of 62 ships of rented property and, of which is from 19.000 teu of new construction and eleven from 15.000 teu of new construction that little months are delivered to UASC ago". "The immediate access to the ships and the containers of the UASC - it has confirmed - for us constitutes one of the main objectives of the transaction".

In particular, to tickle the interest of the Hapag-Lloyd they are the six portacontainer from 19.000 teu: "with the fusion - it has clarified Habben Jansen - we make sure the great ships necessary to the aim to obtain low unitary shipping charges for container. Before still of the first talks on the project of the fusion operation - it has specified - Hapag-Lloyd had understood that it is necessary to make use of the larger ships currently available".

Habben Jansen has specified that also the requirement to have of ships of high tonnage has been one of the main reasons that the company has pushed to put into effect the Hypo in the course of 2015. "The investments already carried out from the UASC in this class of ships - it has explained - will in the next few years return ulterior investments in great ships by Hapag-Lloyd not necessary. With the completion of the Hapag-Lloyd fusion it will have approached immediate the ships and the container of the UASC. With the fusion of the two companies and the relative lack of necessity to resort to new orders, ulterior ability in a market already characterized from sovracapacità will not be introduced".

According to Habben Jansen, moreover, the maximum ability to the ships already ordered from the UASC is that ideal in order to achieve a control of the shipping charges. "We - in fact he has specified the managing director of Hapag-Lloyd - do not believe that the main challenges of our field can be resolved from ships that are remarkablly still larger. I am convinced - he has explained - than ships still larger cannot contribute in meaningful way to reduce the consumption of bunker and the cost for transported unit. Because larger it is the type of the ship, more contained they are the economies of scale. To my warning, he does not have therefore sense for the navigation companies to invest in ships still larger. Therefore absolutely they are convinced that in the short one and the medium period we will not see ships larger than those current ones from 20.000 teu, even if technically they are completely possible".