Germany's Hapag-Lloyd has announced that it is currently Negotiations at an advanced stage for the possible acquisition of the entire share capital of the shipping company containerized Israeli ZIM. Specifying that they have not been binding agreements have yet been signed, the Hamburg-based company has recalled that the eventual acquisition, in addition to having to obtain the necessary approvals of the transaction by the Board of Directors management and supervisory board of Hapag-Lloyd as well as the competent bodies of the counterparties contractual agreements, must necessarily also obtain the consent of the State of Israel. In fact, according to the statute of the ZIM, the Israeli State, through the Ministries of Finance and Transport, holds a non-transferable Special State Share that confers various powers on the State, including the consent of the State for the transfer or disposal of shares equal to at least 35% of the capital of ZIM and the possible opposition to similar transactions involving shares in the company's capital above 24% and below 35%.

With regard to the Special State Share, Hapag-Lloyd specified that, in this context, negotiations are at an advanced stage with Israeli private equity firm FIMI Opportunity Funds for the assumption of obligations deriving from these rights special features. The transaction would in fact involve the purchase of the international activities of ZIM by Hapag-Lloyd, while FIMI would acquire the activities in Israel and The brand and the 16 ships owned by the company and scheduled services with Israel, including those with the United States, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. FIMI would pass employees of the ZIM headquarters and those who are maritime services for the private equity.

According to several sources, the value of the acquisition would be equal to to about $3.5-3.7 billion.

ZIM was founded in 1945 by the Jewish Agency as a ZIM Palestine Navigation Company when it acquired its first ship, the Kedmah. The company's entry into the maritime transport of containers took place in 1972 with the launch of the ZIM Container Service that connected Israel with the Far East, North America and Europe.

With the 700 thousand TEUs of hold capacity of the fleet of the ZIM, Hapag-Lloyd consolidates its position as fifth Worldwide container shipping company with a capacity total equal to 3.1 million TEUs.