The team was led by partner Marius Berenbrok.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP (‘Freshfields’) has advised Maersk Line A/S (‘Maersk Line’), a subsidiary of A.P. Møller - Mærsk A/S, on the acquisition of Hamburg Südamerikanische Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft KG (‘Hamburg Süd’) from Dr. August Oetker KG. The acquisition covers the entire container liner and tramp shipping business run by Hamburg Süd, including all related asset holding companies and subsidiaries. After the parties agreed on the basic structure of the transaction in a term sheet signed at the end of 2016, a share purchase agreement was signed in Hamburg last Tuesday.

Hamburg Süd is the world’s seventh largest container shipping company and one of the leading providers for the North-South trading routes. To provide the scheduled service offered by Hamburg Süd, delivered by the brands Hamburg Süd, CCNI (Chile) and Alianca (Brazil), more than 130 container ships are used, of which 46 are owned by Hamburg Süd (including Alianca). The group has more than 5.900 employees working in more than 250 offices around the world.

By acquiring Hamburg Süd, Maersk Line strengthens its position as the world’s largest container shipping company and expands its share of the worldwide container transport capacity from around 15.7 per cent to around 18.6 per cent. After the integration of Hamburg Süd, Maersk Line will have a fleet containing a total of 741 container ships with a transport capacity of approximately 3.7m 20-foot standard containers. The acquisition of the world’s seventh-largest container carrier by world’s first largest contributes to the ongoing consolidation in the field of container shipping.

The share purchase agreement requires approval by the shareholders of Dr. Oetker and the supervisory bodies of both parties. Subject to the consent of the relevant competition authorities the transaction will be completed at the end of 2017.

The Freshfields team was led by partner Marius Berenbrok.