Hapag-Lloyd today successfully closed the acquisition of the container liner business of German carrier Deutsche Afrika-Linien (DAL), after signing the framework agreement in March.
The transaction had been approved by all responsible antitrust authorities.
“We will now fully integrate DAL’s container liner activities into our business,” said Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen.
He is confident the broad experience and market knowledge of the DAL team will support the line’s further growth in Africa.
“Africa remains an important strategic market for us. For the service offering from and to South Africa, DAL is a particularly valuable addition, allowing Hapag-Lloyd to offer their customers a better network and additional port coverage in this region,” he said.
DAL operates four liner services between Europe, South Africa and the Indian Ocean. Headquartered in Hamburg, the Africa expert is represented with own offices in Germany and South Africa, as well as through third-party agents in 47 countries worldwide.
Their liner business (including agencies) employs more than 150 people. DAL owns a 6 589-TEU container ship and operates a container fleet of around 17 800 boxes (owned and leased), which will be taken over as part of the acquisition.
Full commercial integration is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2022.
In 2021, Hapag-Lloyd acquired specialist Africa carrier NileDutch, which strengthened its presence and service offering to and from West Africa.
