Told you so: MSC denies any interest in takeover of Zim

Bit of gloating to be had here: it may have been Lloyd’s List that landed confirmation that the world’s largest container line would not be pursuing a bid for Zim, but the team at The Loadstar were well ahead on this one.

Writing for Premium back in September, when news broke that the Israeli carrier’s CEO, Eli Glickman, was planning a management buy-out of Zim, Gavin van Marle considered the other possible contenders in the ring.

And he reckoned there was a “99.9%” chance that MSC would not be in contention.

Jump forward a few months and Mr Glickman steaming ahead, names like Hapag-Lloyd, Maersk, and MSC were all being bandied about by the press.

Efforts by The Loadstar to coax anything out of any of the touted potential suitors failed; a Hapag-Lloyd spokesperson telling us “we do not comment on market rumours”, while a Zim spokesperson simply responded with: “No comment.”

However, it briefly appeared last week that Mr van Marle’s confidence had been misplaced, when CTech reported that MSC had in fact submitted a bid for Zim – one that would have topped that of Mr Glickman and Hapag-Lloyd’s purported offer.

That report was quickly shot down after Lloyds List provoked this out of MSC: “We wish to deny any interest in acquiring Zim,” confirming what Gavin van Marle told the world months ago. Noting the big beast of container shipping was on an “M&A spree unparalleled to anything the logistics industry has ever seen”, he pointed out that “all its plays are on land – ports, trucks, trains, and logistics”.

He added: “The Loadstar understands its owners have long held the view success in liner shipping is simply a question of market share and, since there are cheaper ways to acquire tonnage and goodwill, acquiring other lines is a futile exercise.

And he noted that, “in any case, it really doesn’t need Zim’s tonnage – MSC’s orderbook stands at 2.27m teu, almost three and a half times the size of Zim’s entire fleet, of 756,000 teu”.

While Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk remain mute on speculation over their potential acquisition of Zim, the comment from MSC will likely bolster Mr Glickman’s confidence that he can get his MBO over the line.