Contship Italia has signed the agreement for the acquisition of the Tarros group as a whole, including the activities and assets that constitute the integrated system of services, including: Tarros Spa and its foreign subsidiaries, Golfo Spa Terminal, Carbox Srl, Compagnia Marittima Servizi Srl and Med Logistics Malta Ltd., active in maritime connections, port handling and land transport. The closing of the acquisition, which is subject to the necessary authorizations by the competent authorities, is scheduled in the fourth quarter of this year.

Contship and Tarros have specified that the operation fits into the Contship development strategy aimed at strengthening its positioning and expanding the integration of its service offering. The goal is to develop a new integrated logistics platform in the Euro-Mediterranean area and create new opportunities along the logistic corridors between Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa.

The two companies are logistic groups with a strong presence in the field of the marine transport of container, but with different operating models. Both aim to control and coordinate multiple phases of the logistics chain, from handling in ports to transfer goods to the final destination. However Contship Italy has its own baricentro in the management of the harbour terminals and in the integration with the railway and intermodal network, while Tarros is above all an operator of marine transport short-range in the Mediterranean, integrated with terminal, road haulage, railway and logistic services.

Contship Italia Spa is participated in 66.6% by the German Eurokai and 33.4% by the German Eurogate (in turn a joint venture 50:50 between Eurokai and the BLG Logistics of Bremen). In the harbour sector the company operates terminal in the Italian ports of call of La Spezia (La Spezia Container Terminal), Ravenna (Terminal Container Ravenna) and Salerno (Salerno Container Terminal) and abroad in Morocco and Egypt. Moreover, through companies like Hannibal, Oceanogate and Sogemar the group organizes railway services and combined integrating the marine transport with the terrestrial one. The network includes intermodal platforms, truck transport services, deposits and complementary activities, including customs assistance and commodity flows management.

The group Tarros, with headquarters to La Spezia, operates in the marine transport of goods with a network that connects the different shores of the Mediterranean. Its offer integrates ships, terminals, road and rail transport, customs services and shipments. The origins of the group date back to 1828, linked to the tradition of the shipper Grendi, while the society Tarros is constituted in 1963 to develop a marine service for Sardinia with a ship portacontainer ro-ro. Currently the core of the activity of the group break is the marine transport of line, with regular connections between 31 Mediterranean ports of 16 Countries. With the Gulf Terminal, Tarros has to the Spezia of a multifunctional terminal for container, cargo ro-ro, project cargo and goods various. Moreover, the branch Carbox organizes national and international transports on road and railway, including the withdrawal of the container in the terminals and the delivery to the plants or to the deposits, while CMS - Compagnia Marittima Services provides activities of marine agency, customs agency and forwarder. The group also offers container sales services.

Commenting on the operation, the president and managing director of the group Tarros, Alberto Musso, said that "to maintain a strategic growth of a company in the long term it is necessary to find partners with which to share the same vision of the future. For a long time - he has announced - I was looking for a solid ally, with our own vision of growth and ambitions, that allowed the Tarros group to develop further in a complex and challenging context like today. The agreement with Contship aims to create a Euro-Mediterranean platform by connecting two important operators with complementary features: a strong European identity, on the one hand, and a historical Mediterranean presence, on the other".