Allen & Overy advises Hapag-Lloyd on new container terminal joint venture in Egypt

The new Terminal 2 at the port of Damietta is expected to start operations in 2024. It will have a final total operational capacity of 3.3 million TEU* and serve as Hapag Lloyd's dedicated strategic transshipment hub in the East Mediterranean.

With a fleet of 253 modern container ships and a total transport capacity of 1.8 million TEU, Hapag-Lloyd is one of the world's leading liner shipping companies. The company employs around 14,100 people and has 421 offices in 137 countries. Hapag-Lloyd has a container capacity of around 3.1 million TEU – including one of the largest and most modern refrigerated container fleets. A total of 126 liner services worldwide ensure fast and reliable connections between more than 600 ports on all continents. Hapag-Lloyd is one of the leading operators in the Transatlantic, Middle East, Latin America and Intra-America trades.

EUROGATE is the leading shipping line-independent container terminal operator group in Europe. Jointly with the Italian terminal operator CONTSHIP Italia, the company operates a network of container terminals at 12 locations from the North Sea coast to the Mediterranean area. In addition to container handling at seaports, EUROGATE offers intermodal transport and additional services around the box. EUROGATE was founded in 1999. In 2021, the group handled around 12.3 million TEU across Europe.

The Allen & Overy team comprised partners Dr Helge Schäfer and Dr Jonas Wittgens as well as associates Dr Jan-Benedikt Fischer and Louisa Graubner (all Corporate/M&A, all Hamburg).

Hapag-Lloyd was advised inhouse by Thomas Mansfeld (General Counsel) and Dr Anne-Kathrin Drettmann (Deputy Head of Corporate Finance and Legal).

Only recently, an Allen & Overy team advised Hapag-Lloyd on the acquisition of a stake in the German deepwater seaport JadeWeserPort and on the acquisition of a large container liner business from Deutsche Afrika-Linien, a container liner company operating between Europe and Africa.

* Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit is an internationally standardised unit to measure ISO containers of various sizes and for describing the capacity of container ships and terminals in the context of container transport.