Shipping Agencies Services will sell the 49% held in Moby with the waiver of the consideration in favor of the majority shareholder. Moby is committed to the complete reduction of the debt to SAS
The Italian Competition Authority has MSC Group has announced the commitments made by the MSC Group to enable the early closure of the investigation that the Antitrust Authority has launched at the end of last year on the acquisition by the 49% of the Moby shipping company and market effects of the large financing of 243 million euros granted at the end of 2023 by the group to Moby ( of 18 November 2024). Specifying that he believes “that his behavior is fully legitimate state and in compliance with competition law’ and that the proposed commitments, “on the one hand, do not constitute a no way admission of responsibility with respect to the conduct subject to dispute in the I872 proceeding; on the other hand are fully eligible and suitable for the loss of the profiles potentially anti-competitive subject to the investigation’, the company SAS Shipping Agencies Services of the MSC group has committed “to the immediate sale of the 49% held in Moby with waiver of the consideration in favour of the shareholder of majority; the immediate renunciation of the pledge on 51% of Moby; to assignment of receivables from Moby to an independent third-party company /or total abatement or partial of the same in a short time, as early as the end of 2025”.
In addition, the shipping company Grandi Navi Veloci (GNV) of the MSC group, also expressing the firm conviction “to having acted legitimately”, undertook, with regard to the Genoa-Porto Torres, Genoa-Olbia maritime services and Civitavecchia-Olbia, to offer a form of benefit to customers who have purchased a transport service for carried out or to be carried out between 1 June and 30 September of this year and, with regard to the Naples-Palermo route, a similar form of benefit for Saturday and Sunday transport services purchased in the period from November 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025.
For his part, Moby, pointing out that he believes “that the conduct is fully lawful and that therefore the risk – feared in the Initiation – of a possible deterioration of the competitive dynamics on the relevant markets related to the existence of the “structural link” between Moby and MSC find no foundation”, undertook “to implement a comprehensive plan for the sale of company assets aimed at ensuring the complete reduction of debt in the SAS in certain and monitorable times”. In In particular, the plan provides for three phases in which a census of Moby’s non-strategic assets with the aim of identify those to be alienated and the appointment of an expert who will determine the price of the identified assets. Therefore, if “the value of the identified assets is not sufficient to offset Moby’s debt to SAS in full”, Moby is committed “to identifying additional assets that can be transfer on the market to SAS or to third parties, until the complete extinction of the debt”. At the same time, identify “one or more third-party entities to which SAS could assign its residual credit”. Finally, it is will proceed with the stipulation of the transfer contracts. Moby has also committed to making “every effort to contain the procedure by 31 December 2025, unless proven and objective reasons that will be promptly presented to the Authority”. Moby then committed to take part in the signing of the agreement by which SAS transfers to Onorato Shipowners share Moby and renounce the pledge in their favor set up by Onorato Armatori on the Moby shares representing the 51% of the share capital.
