German logistics company HHLA buying Estonian Transiidikeskuse AS
Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) is buying Estonian container terminal operator Transiidikeskuse AS from businessman Anatoli Kanajev for several tens of millions of euros. HHLA International GmbH will take over all of Transiidikeskuse AS' shares.
"I'm glad to hand over responsibility for Transiidikeskuse AS to HHLA. HHLA has extensive experience and expertise as a container terminal operator. This will ensure that Transiidikeskuse AS is successful in the future, and it will also see sustainable development," said Kanajev, who will remain on the supervisory board of the company in the future.
"Estonia is one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe and a pioneer where it comes to digitization. We are therefore pleased to be integrating Transiidikeskuse AS, already a profitable and high-performing company, into the HHLA family. One of HHLA's targets is to grow internationally," CEO of HHLA, Angela Titzrath said.
"The acquisition enables us to enter a promising regional market that offers growth potential as a result of its geographic position and its link to the 'New Silk Road'. As Hanseatic cities, Hamburg and Tallinn share a long history, to which HHLA is now adding a new chapter," she added.
According to HHLA, "the acquisition price is a middle double-digit million euro amount". The completion of the transaction is subject to various conditions and expected to take place in the second quarter of 2018. HHLA's supervisory board has already approved the acquisition.
The container terminal at Muuga Harbor is currently experiencing high utilization of its capacity of around 300,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (also called TEU, a measure for container capacity), which can be increased to approximately 800,000.
Muuga, which is just a few kilometers out of Tallinn, is Estonia's main commercial port and an important freight handling point in the Baltic region. Transiidikeskuse AS is the market leader in container handling in the Baltic states and also operates a multipurpose terminal for break bulk, bulk, and RoRo (Roll-on/Roll-off) handling.
Transiidikeskuse AS is a specialized container and general goods operator in the free zone of the port of Muuga. The company's owner with 99.53 percent of its stock is Kanajev. The 2016 revenue of Transiidikeskuse AS amounted to €19.2 million, profit in the same year to €3.5 million. The company employed 229 at the end of that year.
Editor: Dario Cavegn
Source: BNS
