Hapag-Lloyd (Acquired by Consortium 2008)

Seafaring Hapag-Lloyd was the transportation arm of German tourism giant TUI. Subsidiary Hapag-Lloyd Container Line, which accounts for most of Hapag-Lloyd's sales, operates a fleet of about 135 containerships. Overall, Hapag-Lloyd Container Line's vessels have a capacity of more than 490,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU).

The unit's routes link Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Africa. In addition to freight transportation, Hapag-Lloyd offers luxury ocean and river cruises under its Hapag-Lloyd Cruises brand.

In March, 2009, the "Hamburg consortium” acquired 56.67% of the shares of Hapag-Lloyd AG. The consortium comprises the City of Hamburg through its HGV holding company, Kühne Holding AG, M.M.Warburg Bank, HSH Nordbank and the two insurance groups Signal-Iduna and HanseMerkur. TUI will hold a stake of 43.33% in future.

In 2007, Hapag-Lloyd reported revenues of around €6bn. In the same year, Hapag-Lloyd transported 5.5m TEU worldwide an increase of 9% from 2006.

History

Hapag-Lloyd was established in 1970 as a result of the merger of the shipping lines Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (Hamburg-America Line or Hapag), based in Hamburg, and Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL), based in Bremen. The company operates the shipping division of the TUI Group, and is split into a container shipping business and passenger cruises. 

Since the acquisition of CP Ships by Hapag-Lloyd in late 2005, the company has combined the strengths of the two shipping companies to create one of the main global carriers. The integration of CP Ships into Hapag-Lloyd placed the organisation among the top 10 biggest shipping companies in the world.