Closed for Msc what risked being a painful dossier in Italy regarding antitrust in the ferry market to Sardinia (for the 49% entry into Moby just cancelled), the Geneva-based group founded by Gianluigi Aponte finds itself having to face another important match in Europe on the topic of competition, this time in Spain.
According to what was revealed by Reuters, in fact, the European Union antitrust authorities are ready to investigate the Spanish part of the agreement concerning the joint offer by BlackRock and Msc to acquire the container terminals of CK Hutchison. As widely known due to the media coverage the deal has received, also involving the docks facing the Panama Canal, the CK Hutchison group, controlled by Hong Kong magnate Li Ka-shing, intends to sell its 80% stake in a port business worth $22.8 billion that includes 43 ports in 23 countries around the world. None of these are in Italy.
In Spain, however, the operation would include an important container terminal in the port of Barcelona that Terminal Investment Limited (the terminal arm of Msc) would come to control (together with BlackRock) alongside the one the Swiss shipping group already holds in Valencia. The sum of the port capacity of the latter and the one currently held by Hutchison in Barcelona is raising an alarm bell in Brussels over a risk of excessive concentration in the hands of Msc on the Spanish coasts facing the Mediterranean.
The Barcelona Europe South Terminal (80% owned by CK Hutchison and 20% by Tercat), for which Msc had already obtained approval in recent months to acquire a 50% stake, is capable of accommodating and processing multiple large container ships simultaneously and is equipped with an eight-track rail structure that makes these docks one of the best rail-connected yards among those existing in the Mediterranean and linked by land to Southern Europe.
Again, according to Reuters reporting sources familiar with the matter, the European Commission, performing its role as guarantor of competition at the continental level, is expected to open an in-depth investigation at the end of the preliminary review of the agreement, scheduled for December 10. In-depth EU investigations usually last at least four months and can lead to offers (concessions) from the parties involved, including, for example, the divestment of assets, in order to eliminate competition concerns from the outset and obtain a green light for the closing of the deal.
Neither the European Commission, nor BlackRock, nor Msc, nor even Hutchison have commented on this information.
CK Hutchison controls port terminals in several European countries including Belgium, Poland, and the Netherlands. It is not yet clear if and in which other countries other alarm bells like the one in Barcelona may emerge.
