May 24 - Hapag-Lloyd and United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) have completed the merger between the two liner shipping companies.
The process of combining Hapag Lloyd's 118 services with the 45 services that make up UASC's network will start in approximately eight weeks, says Hapag Lloyd.
UASC's 58 vessels will be integrated into the fleet of Hapag-Lloyd, meaning the combined fleet will include a total of 230 vessels, with an average ship age of 7.2 years and an average vessel size of 6,840 teu. According to Hapag-Lloyd, the combined entity will have an estimated annual transport volume in excess of 10 million teu.
The two majority shareholders of UASC, Qatar Investment Authority, through its subsidiary Qatar Holding LLC, and the Public Investment Fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (PIF), will become shareholders of Hapag-Lloyd. The other UASC shareholders are the Kuwait Investment Authority on behalf of the state of Kuwait, the Iraqi Fund for External Development (IFED), the UAE and Bahrain, which will be reflected with a combined 3.6 percent of the shares of Hapag-Lloyd as free float shares.
