Hapag-Lloyd has successfully closed the acquisition of the Dutch container shipping company Nile Dutch Investments B.V, having formally acquired all shares of the company.
The purchase agreement was signed in March and now all responsible antitrust authorities have approved the transcation.
Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd, said: “We are very excited about closing the deal and look forward to working with our new colleagues to unlock the enormous potential that Africa has to offer.
“With the people from NileDutch joining our company, Hapag-Lloyd is noticeably increasing the number of employees on the ground in Africa. We are happy and excited to welcome NileDutch’s roughly 320 employees to the Hapag-Lloyd family.”
Depending on market conditions, Hapag-Lloyd and NileDutch aim to integrate major parts of the two businesses already in the later part of 2021 to be able to offer the full benefits of the combined network to customers as soon as possible.
NileDutch is one of the leading shipping companies along the West African coast, boasting 40 years of experience in the market.
Its headquarters are based in Rotterdam and NileDutch is present in 85 locations across the world with 16 offices in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Singapore, Angola, Congo and Cameroon.
The company brings with it seven liner services, around 35,000 teu of transport capacity and a container fleet with a capacity of around 80,000 teu.
The integration will be moving at a swift pace and full commercial integration is expected to be completed by the end of 2021.
