Less than a year after closing its acquisition of NileDutch, Hapag-Lloyd continues its expansion into the African market with the takeover of Deutsche Afrika-Linien (DAL).
In an announcement dated 10 March 2022, Hapag-Lloyd said that the two carriers had signed a framework agreement under which Hapag-Lloyd will acquire the container liner business of DAL.
The completion of the transaction is still subject to approval from the responsible antitrust authorities.
Like Hapag-Lloyd, the family-owned DAL is based in Hamburg. Together with Essberger Tankers and Dry Cargo, DAL is part of the Rantzau Group. The company dates back to 1890 and it currently operates with four liner services between Europe, South Africa and the Indian Ocean.
Deutsche Afrika-Linien however only owns and operates a single vessel, the 6.589 teu DAL KAHAHARI, built in 2010.
The carrier is only a vessel provider in the South Africa - Europe Container Service (‘SAECS’) that it jointly operates with Maersk (six ships) and ONE (two ships). All other DAL services are maintained through slots on the respective loops of Maersk and CMA CGM (‘Protea’ / ‘MIDAS 2’) and OACL (’Eastern Cape Feeder’ and ‘Cape Town - Durban Shuttle’).
Neither of the two partners disclosed the purchase price of the company, but Hapag-Lloyd confirmed that the acquisition of the DAL KAHAHARI was part of the deal. The same is true for DAL’s equipment fleet of around 17,800 boxes.
The Africa trade expert DAL is represented with own offices in Germany and South Africa, as well as through third-party agents in 47 countries worldwide. Globally, DAL offices and agencies employ more than 150 staff.
Rantzau Group’s commented the sale and said that it saw risks for the future in the container shipping sector. In a statement, its management pointed out: ‘Deutsche Afrika-Linien, as a medium-sized family business, is increasingly coming under pressure from market dominating mega-carriers’.
The company added, that while the move affected its staff in Bremen and Hamburg, it was happy that DAL had found a strong investor in its neighbourhood, who would continue the business.
