Hapag-Lloyd closes acquisition of DAL

Hapag-Lloyd keeps on growing. After signing a sales and purchase agreement in March, we have now closed the deal and acquired the container liner business of Deutsche Afrika-Linien (DAL). All responsible antitrust authorities have approved the transaction, and we have successfully closed the deal on June 1. It is an important step for our plan to further grow in Africa.

“We are very excited about closing the deal”, says Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd. “The acquisition of DAL strengthens our position in Africa and will be an excellent addition to our existing activities on the continent. Especially our service offering from and to South Africa will benefit from this.”

DAL is an established shipping company for containerised cargo with a rich history dating back to 1890, when it was founded as Deutsche Ost-Afrika Linie. In 1942, the Company was taken over by former Imperial Navy Officer, Commander John Theodor Essberger, who had established himself as a tank shipowner in Hamburg. After the second World War, he renamed the company Deutsche Container Linien. Today, with headquarters located in Hamburg, the company operates with four liner services between Europe, South Africa and the Indian Ocean and employs more than 150 people, who are mostly located in DAL’s own offices in South Africa and Germany. In addition, DAL is represented in 47 countries by third party agents. In terms of capacity, DAL counts with a 6,589 TEU container ship and a container fleet of around 17,800 owned and leased containers, which have been taken over by Hapag-Lloyd as part of the acquisition.

We will now start to integrate DAL’s container liner activities into our business as quickly as possible. “It’s great that the colleagues from DAL will join the Hapag-Lloyd family”, says Rolf Habben Jansen. “With their particular expertise in the South African market, they will support us in developing our business on the continent in the years to come.”