The Prime Minister's Office Removes the Zim Deal from the Agenda
The Prime Minister's Office also recommends against approving the Zim deal under any framework with conditions ■ The significance of the recommendation, if accepted: the buyers of Zim — Germany's Hapag-Lloyd and FIMI — will not be permitted to submit any improved framework
By Nati Tucker
18:20 • September 28, 2026
Is the Zim deal heading for collapse? The Prime Minister's Office today (Monday) issued an opinion that completely rejects the Zim deal. The position technically addresses the original framework, but it is firm and unambiguous, and apparently also removes from the agenda the improved framework that the buyers, Hapag-Lloyd and FIMI, want to present.
The opinion from the Infrastructure Division of the Prime Minister's Office states that Zim Israel is indeed expected to begin operating without financial debt, with significant equity and protective mechanisms in its early years — however, this stability relies considerably on arrangements with Hapag-Lloyd, including commitments for capacity purchase, container availability, operational services, and connectivity to the global network. At the same time, the business plan assumes that within a few years, Zim Israel will replace a significant portion of this activity with independent commercial activity, and the contractual protective mechanisms will gradually decrease accordingly.
The opinion continues: the main risk is not the reduction of protections itself, but the dependency on the assumption that the pace of building independent activity will be fast enough to compensate for their reduction. A gap between the rate of acquiring independent customers and the rate of reduction in support from Hapag-Lloyd could expose the company to harm to revenues and profitability precisely during its establishment years.
According to the opinion from the Prime Minister's Office, even from a national perspective, the framework does not adequately address the interests that the special state share was meant to protect: the company will rely on parties not subject to the special state share for containers, connectivity, and operational services; it will not have an independent line to Asia and the Far East at the time of establishment; its ability to maintain the fleet over time depends on significant capital investments; and some of the knowledge and capabilities required for its independent operation have not yet been secured in a binding framework.
The update between the parties dated September 14, 2026, regarding the management of ships within Zim Israel and the examination of opening a line to the Far East indicates a possibility of narrowing some of the gaps, but both issues have not yet been secured in a binding contractual commitment. The central problem with the framework is not the existence of business risk itself, but the gap between the corporate structure and the operational and strategic reality.
Zim Israel will be an Israeli company owned and controlled by FIMI fund, but Israeli corporate control does not guarantee operational and strategic independence. A substantial part of its operational and commercial capabilities will continue to depend on Hapag-Lloyd, a foreign company not subject to the special state share. After the deal's completion, the state will thus remain with a special state share in an Israeli company, while a substantial part of the conditions required for its ability to operate over time and fulfill its national role will depend on an entity the state has no dealings with.
"In our view," the Prime Minister's Office writes, "this gap is a material gap in the core interests that the special state share was meant to protect, and does not justify approving the deal in its current format. There is no room to rely on future commitments whose existence and enforcement effectiveness will only become clear after the deal's completion, when the state's ability to influence the deal's structure will be significantly diminished."
The Prime Minister's Office also recommends against approving the deal under any framework with conditions — a recommendation whose meaning is also to not allow the Zim buyers to submit any improved framework.
"In our view, there is no room to rely on future commitments whose existence and enforcement effectiveness will only become clear after the deal's completion, when the state's ability to influence the deal's structure will be significantly diminished" — so states the recommendation from the Economics and Infrastructure Division of the Ministry.