The Hamburg shipping company Claus-Peter Offen has decided to take over the Munich-based Conti Group following a shareholders agreement of the two companies.
According to the terms of the deal, Offen is taking over 100% of the corporate shares of the Conti Group and the qualified majority of shares in the Bremer Bereederungsgesellschaft BBG. After the takeover, the Conti Group will continue as an independent company.
Claus-Peter Offen said that the takeover is a further step in its growth strategy, adding that Conti“is an optimal fit for our group.”
With the addition of Conti Group’s 68 ships and BBG’s managed fleet, the Offen Group will have a fleet of 169 ships: 95 container ships with 631,000 TEU/ 7.8 million tdw, 37 bulkers with 3.0 million tdw and 37 product tankers with 1.8 tdw.
Conti Group has a fleet of 30 boxships, 8 product tankers and 29 bulk carriers, while BBG is in charge of the technical management of 35 bulk carriers including the aforementioned 29 Conti vessels.
Germany’s Offen Group operates around 70 boxships with a total of 417,000 TEU capacity, including 33 large Postpanamax ships with up to 14,000 TEU.
The company’s ships are employed primarily in scheduled services by the large charter companies such as MSC, Maersk, CMA CGM, Hapag Lloyd and Hamburg Süd, predominantly on long term charters.
Since 2007, the company has also been involved in product tanker shipping with around 30 ships, as well as in bulk shipping with 8 ships.
The consolidation move of the two German giants comes one month after Germany’s Zeaborn Group signed a deal to acquire business operations of compatriot liner services specialist Rickmers-Linie, owned by Rickmers Holding.
The planned sale also includes the entire operating business of Rickmers’ subsidiaries, MCC Marine Consulting & Contracting, a bunker and chartering broker, and NPC Projects, which was acquired by Rickmers in July 2016 and offers a heavy lift tramp service.
Source: http://worldmaritimenews.com