Messina signs a memorandum of understanding for the sale of 49% of the Genoese group to MSC. The agreement includes the Messina terminal, the shipping company and the offices of the Messina group in the centre of Genoa. The agreement comes after the meeting that took place at the headquarters of Banca Carige in Genoa, where Ignazio and Stefano Messina, Andrea Gais, Vittorio Malacalza, Banca Carige and Gianluigi Aponte met.
The operation was born from the need of Banca Carige to accelerate the reduction of the stock of Non Perfoming Loans (npl) and bring it to 3.7 billion in 2019. To achieve this goal, Carige will have to sell about 1.5 billion npl earlier than expected. Help to the bank will come from the agreement between MSC and Ignazio Messina & C., under which the group led by the Aponte family buys 49% of the Genoese company. Banca Carige was exposed for about 420 million euro with the Messina group. The sum, given the difficulties faced by Messina and a large part of the shipping, is currently considered a grounding.
The agreement between the two companies comes at a time of major changes in the shipping industry. The major container lines are facing their worst crisis due to an excess of ships and the simultaneous decline in demand, which has prompted players to enter into vessel-sharing agreements or pursue mergers and acquisitions. The world’s number one, Maersk, announced in December that it would acquire its German rival Hamburg Süd, which was followed by other offers in the sector including a proposed merger between the German Hapag-Lloyd and the United Arab Shipping Company. Other sources within MSC claim that this month the company bought a stake in Total Terminals International, the US terminal operator, from South Korea’s Hanjin.
