Abu Dhabi Ports finalising to buy Indonesia's largest shipping line

A container ship of Meratus Shipping Line (Photo: Meratus)

 
Abu Dhabi Ports (AD Ports) is said to be in the process of completing an agreement to acquire Meratus, Indonesia's largest container shipping line, in a deal worth about $2 billion. Meratus is a family-owned company, and the shipping line has been for sale since July this year.

According to Alphaliner, this Surabaya-based shipping company operates a container fleet of more than 60 ships, with a capacity of 135 to 2,700 TEUs.

Meanwhile, AD Ports has rapidly expanded its scope of operations in the past period, and has now become one of the leading corporations in the field of port and maritime exploitation. This year alone, the group has made deals in Angola, Egypt, Congo and across Central Asia, as well as growing its tanker fleet and establishing an NVOCC (Non-Vessel Owning Carrier) with partner Aramex, a logistics business currently listed on the Dubai exchange.

Over the past year, AD Ports has acquired multiple container shipping lines, including Global Feeder Shipping and Transmar.

Expert Lars Jensen, founder of consulting firm Vespucci Maritime, commented: “This is yet another example of the ongoing consolidation in the intra-Asian container shipping space and also an example of the ascendance of both AD Ports and DP World into the container shipping space", this expert also predicted that this market will continue to witness more consolidation in the coming years.

Source: Phaata.com (According to Splash247) 

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