German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd has received an approval from its shareholders during the company’s annual general meeting held on Friday on creating the capital conditions required for the planned merger with the Arabian carrier United Arab Shipping Company (UASC).
Hapag-Lloyd’s shareholders approved the creation of new authorised share capital which is “to be used for the merger with the liner shipping company UASC, which is to be incorporated into Hapag-Lloyd as a contribution in kind.”
The shareholders also approved the expansion of the Supervisory Board from the current twelve members to 16, which is to take place once the merger with UASC is concluded.
The merger is still subject to antitrust approvals, according to the company.
“The pending merger with UASC is another strategic milestone for Hapag-Lloyd,” said Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd AG.
“This merger gives us the large vessels we need in order to achieve low transport costs per container. With the investments already made by UASC in these ship classes, Hapag-Lloyd will not need to make any more investments in large vessels in the next few years,” he added.
The two container carriers earlier signed a Business Combination Agreement (BCA), subject to the necessary regulatory and contractual approvals.
Following regulatory and contractual approvals expected to be obtained by the end of 2016, the new Hapag-Lloyd will own and operate 237 vessels with a total transport capacity of around 1.6 million TEU. The new company is expected to handle an annual transport volume of 10 million TEU and have a combined turnover of approximately USD 12 billion.