Link to article in german {http://www.wsj.de/article/SB10001424052702304632204579338352341309812.html}
The container shipping company Hapag-Lloyd will in Frankfurt on the stock exchange, as soon as the signatures under the merger agreement with the Chilean CSAV competitors are dried. The report with the intention of familiar people. A binding contract should be in the next two months in the bag, the report said.
The audit was on the way, said one of the informants. If everything goes smoothly, the deal could be to early March in the bag. Then an IPO would be nothing in the way
Merger would create the fourth largest shipping company
The merger of Hapag-Lloyd with the Chilean competitors would create the fourth largest container shipping shipping company in the world. A merger could bring the much-needed synergy effects that can make good use of both companies in the face of a suffering from overcapacity market.
A merger could trigger much-needed synergy effects that can make good use of both companies in the face of a suffering from overcapacity market. The Chileans quantify the synergies of the combination even annually around 300 million.
The consolidation pressure in the container shipping industry is high. Freight rates have fallen significantly and the global economy growing at a slower pace than expected. The upcoming Alliance of shipping companies Maersk, MSC and CMA CGM will make it even harder for the two smaller competitors. The three industry giants want to share from Shanghai to Rotterdam and to the U.S. west coast ships and port capacity.
CSAV is number 16 of the world's shipping, Hapag-Lloyd ranks fifth. Both lines go well together: Hapag-Lloyd has a strong presence in the ship transportation between Europe and Asia and North America, CSAV has placed the emphasis on connections to and from Latin America. There, the shipping company is the largest shipping company by far.
Hapag-Lloyd looks at numerous failed attempts
Both lines were added in early December in Miami talks after Hapag-Lloyd had failed in 2013 with the attempt to merge with the local competitors Hamburg Süd. The Anbandelung with Neptune Orient Lines N03.SG -0.47% from Singapore in 2008 had remained without success.
The largest shareholder of Hapag-Lloyd is the city of Hamburg, also holds the tourism group TUI TUI1.XE +1.99% accounted for 22 percent. TUI AG would like to say this but, also, an IPO the company was called on this in the interview.
The Chilean shipping company CSAV is controlled by the Luksic family She is one of the richest families in the country, which mixes together in the shipping, mining, finance and beverage industry. A merged company would come up with an annual turnover of about € 9 billion.
The Hamburg shipping company is probably one of the few in the industry that were profitable in the past year on the road. In the third quarter of Hapag-Lloyd drove a net income of 16.6 million euros, compared to 45.6 million in the previous year. CSAV, however, recorded in the three months a loss of 46.7 million dollars. The year before, the Chilean shipping company had still achieved an increase of $ 55.8 million.
Contact the author redaktion@wallstreetjournal.de