EC Gives Green Light Hapag-Lloyd UASC Combination

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Thursday November 24, 2016

The European Commission (EC) Wednesday announced that it has given its approval to the merger of Hapag-Lloyd AG (Hapag-Lloyd) and the United Arab Shipping Company (UASC)

"The clearance is conditional on the withdrawal of UASC from a consortium on the trade routes between Northern Europe and North America, where the merged entity would have faced insufficient competitive constraint," said EC.

The merger is expected to result in a combined company worth an estimated €7 billion to 8 billion ($7.4 billion to $8.46 billion), as well as the fifth largest container carrier in the world.

In July, Ship & Bunker reported that UASC and Hapag-Lloyd had finalised a business combination agreement, which would see the merger of the two companies once required regulatory and contractual approvals are received - expected by the end of 2016.