MSC and representatives of the city-state of Hamburg have Clarified some of the terms of the agreement between the two today parties on the basis of which the shipowning group will acquire the 49.9% of the capital of the terminalista company HHLA of Hamburg, with 51.1% remaining in the hands of the administration of Hamburg, which is already a shareholder of HHLA, ( of 13 September 2023).

In particular, the Mediterranean Shipping Company group commits to increase the traffic of containers handled by HHLA terminal in the port of Hamburg. Currently HHLA moves this traffic mainly in container terminals Burchardkai, Altenwerder and Tollerort which are managed respectively by Branch Container Terminal Burchardkai, which is entire owned by HHLA, from Container Terminal Altenwerder, which is 74.9% owned by the German terminalista company and the 25.1% from the German container shipping company Hapag-Lloyd, and by Container Terminal Tollerort, which is 75.1% owned by HHLA and 24.9% by the company Chinese terminalista COSCO Shipping Ports. The commitment is to increase traffic from 2025, increasing it by a volume equal to at least one million teu from 2031. Last year HHLA enlivened in the port of Hamburg a traffic pairs to 6,2 million teu compared to 6.5 million teu in 2021.

In addition, MSC will establish its own new German headquarters in Hamburg, where several hundred employees will work, and define a long-term investment plan in collaboration with the administration of the city-state Hanseatic and in line with HHLA's strategy.

The agreement between the two parties has unlimited duration with the possibility of termination no earlier than 40 years after subscription. In addition, the Two parties agree to keep the partnership open with respect to other entities of the Port of Hamburg as well as HHLA and its terminal.

Making known the agreement, the Swiss shipowning group has highlighted that its offer, based on a price of 16.75 euro for each class A share of HHLA, represents a premium 57% compared to the weighted average price of 30 days. Yesterday at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange closed at 11.54 euros reaching during trading the maximum value of 17.44 euros.

The takeover bid will be submitted by next four weeks to the approval of the Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (BaFin), the German authority of supervision of insurance and financial markets, which will give its opinion within ten working days. Six weeks will follow in the course of which investors will be able to decide whether to accept the offer, which will then be subject to the approval of the City Free and Hanseatic of Hamburg.

In addition to Hamburg, HHLA also operates container terminals in the Ukrainian port of Odessa, Estonian port of Tallinn and port Italian from Trieste, where in 2021 a share was acquired majority (50.01%) of Piattaforma Logistica Trieste ( of 7 January 2021). For its part, MSC is active in the of port activities through the subsidiary Terminal Investment Limited (TIL) which operates 70 terminals in ports around the world including that of Trieste, where TIL controls the company terminalista Trieste Marine Terminal which manages the main Container Terminal of the Julian airport.