Hapag-Lloyd: Share Purchase Welcomed
(Press Release)
Thursday, February 16, 2012
“Hapag-Lloyd, the management and all the employees are delighted with the solution and are pleased that this agreement was reached so fast”, Michael Behrendt, Chief Executive Officer of Hapag-Lloyd AG, said following the announcement that an agreement had been reached between TUI AG and the “Albert Ballin” consortium regarding the purchase of Hapag-Lloyd shares. “This is a good solution, as it further strengthens Hapag-Lloyd’s ties with Hamburg and its port.”
Hapag-Lloyd is the port of Hamburg’s most important customer. Together with its partner shipping companies, who also operate services to Hamburg through Hapag-Lloyd, the Company accounts for approximately half of all container handling there. It has five Asian partners thanks to the Grand Alliance which was initiated back in 1997 and the G6 Alliance which is scheduled to start in March of this year. More than a quarter of the 82 liner services operated by Hapag-Lloyd around the world call at Hamburg. Including feeder services, Hapag-Lloyd links the port of Hamburg with more than 215 ports on all continents.
Hapag-Lloyd is Germany’s largest liner shipping company, transporting more than five million containers (TEU) every year and generating revenue of around EUR 6 billion. Founded in Hamburg in 1847, the Company is represented in 114 different countries and employs approximately 6,900 people around the world, close to 1,700 of whom are based in Hamburg (shore-based and marine personnel). Hapag-Lloyd is currently training 190 young people, 85 of whom are in the marine division. Its fleet of 150 ships with a total capacity of nearly 680,000 TEU includes two modern training ships sailing under the German flag, which regularly call at Hamburg.